A Few Mistakes Ago

Chapter 4: Revealing It All

Look into your eyes
And the sky's the limit
I'm
Helpless!
Down for the count
And I'm drownin' in 'em

-Helpless, Hamilton (Lin Manuel-Miranda)

Sunlight streamed through Paige's apartment window and she absentmindedly lifted her arm to cover her eyes. A low groan echoed from beside her and she opened one eye to see the man beside her rubbing his jaw.

"Sorry," she giggled as she looked at the damage she caused. Walter was rubbing his jaw from where she had accidently hit him. He looked at her and sighed letting his head fall back onto the pillow.

Another giggle escaped her lips as he sighed and closed his eyes.

"Why is it funny that you hurt me?" asked Walter, confusion lacing his tone. Paige smiled at the question and laid her head against his chest. Sometimes how inept he could be was adorable.

"It's funny because no one often sees you react that way and I like to see the real you." A short smile finds its way to his face and Paige can't help the joy that pools in her chest. Walter's face crinkles up in confusion and looks at her strangely.

"Ok," said Walter, as he started to get up. A cold rush of air hits her and Paige groans.

"Can't we just stay?" whined Paige. All she really wanted was to stay in bed with Walter right next to her.

"No, we have work and Ralph will be up within the next seven minutes?" stated Walter as the bed creaked under his weight.

"Seven?" asked Paige. How the hell was he so precise?

"Based on his sleep patterns and at the time he went to slee-"

"I get it." interrupted Paige. He nodded and Paige leaned forwards, she pecked him on the lips before he walked over to the shower.

.

.

The three of them pulled up to the Garage and Paige was thankful to not see any of the other genius's cars there yet.

"I'm going to change." said Walter as he walked up to the loft. Ralph ran over to a project he was working on while Paige sat down heavily on her chair. She went over paperwork and mentally reminded herself that Ralph could only stay for an hour before she has to take him to school.

The next hour passes quickly. Paige felt accomplished that she had actually managed to get some work done. Walter came back down from the loft and was working on who knows what. Happy, Toby and Sylvester had all arrived and started on their own projects.

Paige glanced at the clock and pushed back her seat. She looked around for Ralph and found him working with some of Happy's tools.

"I said we could come in for an hour before school started. That ended five minutes ago, bud." Said Paige as she watched his hands move.

"Ralph, did you even touch your breakfast?" She asked as she noticed that his breakfast was untouched nearby.

"To move it over." Said Ralph cheekily. Paige transferred her weight to her right side and stared down at her son. He avoided her gaze as he continued to work.

Paige looked up to see Happy walking over. "Hey, I gave you your own set of Allen wrenches for a reason." She said as she walked up, looking down at the tools Ralph was using. Paige had no idea what any of the tools were and was amazed by her son's knowledge of it.

"I have them set by lens strength." said Ralph as he got them ready for Happy to take.

"Ah, well done. First optics test is you check for spherical aberration." said Happy with a slight smile.

"Actually, the first test he needs to do is long division." Interrupted Paige. "So, he can't be late for school."

"Do you really think we need a test to determine if he knows long division?" asked Walter as he seemed half focused on whatever his new project was. To Paige it all looked like a mess.

"Point taken, but he still needs to be at school on time. Go downstairs and get your backpack."

Ralph ran downstairs and went looking for his back pack. Paige slowly walked over to where Walter and Sylvester were working on something.

"What is that?" asked Paige as she looked at whatever it was.

" It's a centrifuge." Answered Sylvester.

"Have you guys had breakfast yet?" asked Paige, her mother voice seeping into her tone.

"We're working here." said Walter simply as his eyes did not leave the centrifuge.

"Ralph does the same thing." murmured Paige as they continued to work. There had been several times that she had caught Ralph so engrossed in what he was doing that he never heard her.

"Well, focus is normal when someone goes down the rabbit hole, you'll know." stated Sylvester as he kept working, his eyes never meeting Paige's.

"What's a rabbit hole?" asked Paige, her brows furrowing in confusion.

"Dehydration, loss of sense of time, antisocial behavior." stated Walter, avoiding looking at her. There was something with him and the rabbit hole. He was just trying to hide it. Paige made a mental note to question him on it.

"And how do you avoid that?" questioned Paige.

"You avoid it by starting a team like Scorpion." said Walter as he motioned for Paige to follow him. He set down his tools and wiped his hands on his pants. Walter led her over to the railing of the loft, his hand ghosting over the small of her back.

Down below, Toby was playing a card game with Ralph.

"I've never seen him happier." A smile found its way onto Paige's face. A calm and genteel feel washed over her and she couldn't help but feel that everything was right.

"He's in the right place." responded Walter simply.

.

.

Paige sat nervously in her car as Walter drove them to wherever their next job was. He was surprisingly quiet about it and wouldn't let up about what was going on. The car pulled into a driveway of a house that looked like it had been let go for several years. Walter pulled the car to a stop and they all got out.

"Guys, this way." said Walter as he motioned for them to follow him into the backyard of whoever's house this was.

"You know how much we love a good mystery, Walter." started Toby as his eyes started analyzing their surroundings. "What exactly are we doing here?"

"Working." replied Walter shortly. Paige raised an eyebrow in question and she knew the geniuses were not buying an ounce of the crap he was selling.

"I bet this picks up the country station nice and clear." said Paige as they entered this house's backyard. There was a large radio antenna that stuck up into the air. It was so large it was almost a joke that someone would have something so big.

"That is quite a fence. Half-inch diameter rebar, reinforced steel chain-link mesh." Happy said as she looked suspiciously at Walter.

"Pure paranoia." stated Toby.

Paige knew that the rest of the team's mind was whizzing. And that they were coming to something. She didn't know what and whatever it would be would most likely blow up in their faces as Walter was refusing to say why they were there.

"There can't be more than a few people in California with this much listening equipment." said Happy, suspicion filtering into her face.

"Whose house is this, Walter?" asked Toby as he put his hands on his hips.

"Keep an open mind." said Walter as they entered the back of the house and headed to the basement.

"Mark Collins?!" exploded Toby as he threw his hands in the air in exasperation.

"Are you insane?" asked Happy simultaneously as Toby.

"No, but Collins is." said Toby angrily. It was the first time that Paige had actually seen Toby angry, and it was a rare sight. Walter didn't react at all to the team.

"Someone want to explain?" asked Paige as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"He was a member of the team, it didn't work out." responded Walter shortly.

"With Collins, Didn't work out is an understatement." said Happy coldly, glaring at Walter.

"You lured us here." accused Toby.

"Would you have come if you knew?" asked Walter knowingly as they walked down the basement steps.

"No."

"Help us find the recordings we're looking for. All we need is data." Walter said as if it was the simplest thing that he had ever decided.

"Where's Collins?" asked Toby mockingly.

"He was arrested." Behind Walter's back Toby rolled his eyes.

"Of course he is."

"All right, let's get a move on, come on." They all followed Walter down the stairs into the basement.

Paige was absolutely appalled at the sight. It was a mess. There were papers taped up everywhere and scattered around the room. It was like a tornado had swept through the place.

"My God, was he always like this?" She picked up a piece of paper and glanced at the scribbles on the paper, not understanding a word.

"What's the story with this Collins?" asked Paige finally. Who was this guy really? How did he affect the team so much.

"Well, if you didn't agree with him, he'd argue with you until you did, and he knew his mind games." said Toby walking up beside her, just quiet enough for Walter not to hear them. "The worst of it was how he affected Walter. He'd get in his head, erase his good judgment and forget we existed."

"Guys." Walter said insistently. Paige cocked her head at him, trying to understand where he was coming from. "We're supposed to be working here."

Paige walked up beside Walter as he was glancing at different scattered notes.

"They really don't like this guy." He gave a short nod. "Maybe you should have told them up front? Just saying, secrets breed mistrust." Walter looked up at her with a half glare, but didn't say anything.

"So, this guy was like you guys, and then this?" She asked walking away from Walter.

"It happens sometimes." Happy said shortly.

"With Mark, it was intense, though. Like, if you played chess with him, he'd make you doubt your every move. And then checkmate." said Sylvester, his hands fidgeting.

"Against you?" questioned Paige incredulously.

Toby pulled a tape out of the mess that he was attempting to go through and pressed the play button.

"But, sir, I'm almost certain there will be a major problem unless we find a way to run the SCADA update. Nothing until 6:46. Channel went dark for 14 minutes." The voice from the tape said.

"Who is that on tape?" asked Cabe.

"A scientist at the reactor, talking over an internal radio." said Walter, his mind racing.

"And SCADA ? These old reactors run on ancient 1980s technology. SCADA is the brain that controls the rest of the system. And it needs to be kept up to date." Sylvester said, thinking out loud.

"What are they covering up?" asked Happy as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Collins has been down here for years capturing everything he could about his neighbor, the Montero Nuclear Power Plant. Rising ocean temperatures, radiation levels near the plant."

Sylvester set down the papers he was going through.

"Right, so the water's getting warmer, more radioactive, and then someone at the power plant says there's a problem." Walter said finishing Sylvester's thoughts.

"Poof, communications went blank." Toby said throwing his arms in the air.

"Collins is alerting us to a major problem at the reactor that's being actively ignored." Cabe said, his mouth thinning into a straight line.

"Why on earth would someone do that?" asked Paige, her voice going an octave higher.

"Standard bureaucratic cover-your-ass. Shocking to think that would extend to nuclear materials, but it does."

"Okay, so we pass this on to the army, and we are done here, right?" Toby had a mock pleading look on his face, though Paige knew that was what he truly wanted.

"No." Toby groaned loudly. "Collins wouldn't have called us unless he thought it needed our expertise." Walter said, a harsh look on his face.

"Since when does he call us?" Happy's voice was also harsh. Paige was almost surprised at the hatred that plagued all of them.

"General Walker said he needs our help." Walter said shortly, Paige guessed that Walter was guilty over something, he rarely got so involved with something that he could easily disregard.

"Who knows how dangerous this situation is?"

"Exactly." pointed out Walter. Happy ran her hand through her hair and it looked like she was about to pull her hair out.

"Guys, what's happening here?" interrupted Paige, hoping for some semblance of peace in their team.

"We just took a job upgrading an ancient nuclear power plant. End of story." Walter said firmly and louder than any other responses from the team members.

.

.

"We need him." said Walter as he referred to the prospect of bringing Collins to them.

"A little more on Collins? He's what my teachers used to call me, bad influence. He and Walter would push each other and just get lost in the work." Toby said bitterly.

"Theoretical algorithms for days."added Sylvester.

"No breaks, no food, no sleep." Happy said with something in her voice that gave Paige the idea that something had happened that involved it all.

"They'd barely speak. Sometimes we'd lose Walter for weeks." Toby interjected. "It's called a savant dissociative state."

"Not pretty." Happy said, her voice showing a bit of distaste.

"Then what?" Paige asked, hating the pictures that kept popping into her mind. The thoughts of Walter starving and being so helpless was startling. Walter had always seemed so strong and in control of himself it seemed impossible that such a thing could happen. She had seen him focused on his work, but not so focused that it was like there was nothing else there.

"Mark just disappeared."

.

.

The sight of Mark Collins walking up to them was something Paige catalogued away in her mind. His hair was in a scraggly mess and his slight beard seemed to be a little crooked. And his clothing had wrinkles, of course the handcuffs didn't do him any favors.

"Come on, let's get to work." Collins said eagerly as he shuffled enthusiastically up to the team. "The gang's all here."

"I love it! Sylvester, my brother! Come on."

As he walked up to Sylvester and gave him an awkward hug that Sly didn't reciprocate. Paige sighed, she felt sorry for the poor man. Sylvester's dislike of the man, hell the whole team's disgust spoke in volumes to Paige.

.

.

"Happy, we've only got one shot." Walter said referring to the diagnostic test that she was adamant that was necessary. "If your diagnostic crashes the system, then we have a meltdown in seventeen and a half hours, and we might not have enough time to rebuild the system from scratch."

Paige tapped her foot impatiently. She could already see how Mark Collins was getting into all of their heads. She was sure that he wouldn't be any good. It was starting to tear the team apart.

"If Collins runs the download before the system's ready for it, we have a meltdown now." argued Happy. Her voice came in loud over the system, Paige mentally congratulated her for how she was sticking with the diagnostic test.

"Happy's never liked me. Her opposition is personal. It's not based on knowledge. Knowledge that I have of this reactor that she doesn't. Trust me." Collins said, angled towards Walter. Paige figured that Collins was using Walter's guilt against him.

"I have complete confidence in this." Walter said after a moment in thought.

"Well, you'd better be right, son. Because there's no do-over." Cabe said glancing towards the two men.

"Don't do it, Walter." urged Happy.

Just as she said it Walter began the update. Paige felt dread pool in her stomach. Things could still go completely wrong and most of their previous missions had. She was sure there would be consequences of trusting Collins for even a second, but at this point there was just about nothing to do that could convince Walter to change his mind. She could try and refuse sex, but that probably would never work.

"Okay. We are downloading the reactor calibrations. Four-minute ETA." Sylvester said, his voice trembling.

.

.

"The others were always very sharp, Walter, but they were never us."

Paige hated the mumblings that she could only slightly overhear from Collins. He kept degrading the team and Paige had half a mind to go up to him and say all the amazing things about the team. Yet, she knew that Walter had to at least figure out most of it for himself.

After a moment a soft explosion echoed in the room and Paige held her arms out to steady herself. Then one of the alarms started blaring and dread pooled further down in her stomach. Something was wrong.

Walter cursed under his breath before collecting his composure. "Happy, what do you see?"

"The backup generator in chamber one blew out." Toby replied first.

"Walter, I think it's my fault. It happened right after I-I ran the system check." Happy said and Paige could hear the sounds of her and Toby moving around.

"Happy, I told you not to!" exclaimed Walter as he ran a hand through his hair.

"We evacuate now, before all the containment doors close." said the General that brought Collins in.

"Containment? Why am I thinking this isn't a drill?" said Toby sarcastically. "No, this is what you get when an aging system is held together with duct tape and a Hail Mary for 30 years."

Several beeps and hisses were heard from what Paige thought was the cooling system.

"Cooling system! Radiation leak! Get out of here now!" yelled Sly as he moved towards the door.

"O'Brien, get your ass in gear!" Cabe said as the others started leaving. Paige looked back at Walter and couldn't help the stab of guilt as she left the room. She still had Ralph to think of, and Ralph went above all things.

.

.

"We can't let him die." Walter said as he watched the monitor of where Cabe was trapped outside of the room.

"You're actually worried about a man's life? That's not the Walter O'Brien I remember." Collins mocking voice said. Paige could feel her anger rising at Collins simple words. There was no point in trying anything yet to reveal her anger towards the man.

"You can help him." countered Walter, his face cross.

"Doesn't need all of us to upgrade the system. We could solve two problems at once." Paige cut in quickly, hoping for a peaceful resolution. Collins shot her a look that she couldn't describe.

"The effluent pipe. Pumps water out of the reactor and into the ocean." said Sylvester, already following her idea.

"He could get in it and ride it out away from the power plant." deduced Walter as he tugged his lip between his teeth.

"Which one is it? I don't remember off the top of my head." asked Sylvester as his hands began to shake slightly.

"I recorded radio chatter about it last cooling system check." said Collins, an excited spark in his eyes. "June of '04. It's back at my house. It's five minutes away."

"Take him." demanded Walter. "Under guard." He added after Happy's glare.

"Happy, go with him, translate the schematics." Paige thought that Walter's idea was the best yet, Happy would surely be able to keep him in check and the thought caused a smile on Paige's face.

"Hey, Collins, you lay off her, or we have an issue." Toby said as Happy rolled her eyes.

"Happy and Collins might not play nice together. Can you I'll go with them." Paige whispered to Sly as Happy and Collins began to leave.

"Walter, do I want to hear the stats on how this might turn out?" Cabe's voice caused a deep chill down Paige's spine at the idea. The thought of death to befall Cabe seemed impossible, Paige was sure when the grim reaper came Cabe would stare it down until it walked away.

"I'd say, best guess, you have a one-in-three chance." Walter said scratching the back of his neck. Paige silently noted the nervous tick.

"Walter, if my life is in the hands of this Collins guy, I need to know if you're hiding something." Cabe's voice was crackly and Paige watched as Walter took in a deep breath of air.

"Three years ago, I had him committed to an asylum." The sentence came out in a quick breath.

"Fantastic."

.

.

"The moment this update hits the reactor, it's programmed to drop all of the core temperatures to a normal level." said Sly as he glanced over the information.

"Which means the meltdown is Correct."

"And then I get hammered." murmured Toby under his breath.

"What if this doesn't work?" asked Paige, her anxiety setting in.

"You got roughly 45 minutes." calculated Sylvester.

"Take your car, get Ralph, drive like hell past the Santa Monica mountains." Walter said immediately.

"Radiation cloud should pool up in the San Fernando Valley basin. You might be okay." said Happy, a thoughtful look on her face. "No one would blame you if you wanted a head start."

"If it doesn't work, I'll go get Ralph."

Paige didn't like the idea of leaving the rest of the team to most likely die just to save herself and Ralph. Yet, no matter what Ralph always came first. If she had to choose between Walter and Ralph, she would choose Ralph without hesitation. Her son would always come first in her life.

"But it will. I believe in us." Walter said glancing up.

.

.

"Numbers are my photo albums." Collins ran a finger over the paper and looked up at Paige with a slight leer.

"Days elapsed since significant occurrences. I change them every morning. That's my birthday. My mother's birthday." Paige noticed the almost aggressive looks he kept sending her as he spoke.

"So, I'm still trying to piece out your role here. No offense, but you're clearly not a genius." Collins took a step towards her and Paige resisted the urge to take a step back.

"No." She said after a moment looking back up at him.

"But my son is enabled, like you." He nodded and Paige could almost physically see his mind swirling in thoughts.

"Walter's trying to repair his youth through your son as well as trying to get into your pants." Collins said simply as he sorted through more information.

"No, he cares about Ralph, and Ralph is crazy about Walter. And you know absolutely nothing." Paige growled out. She refused to let her anger get the best of her.

"Walter's the Pied Piper of geniuses. We all worship him." A pinch of bitterness sinks into his voice. "What he's capable of, how he makes us feel special for being special. That's why it hurts so much when he throws you away when he's done with you."

"Walter would never do something like that." Paige said, instantly defending him. She had little doubts about it all, but she would never let it show.

"I was his experiment, once. The highest IQ that he'd ever seen, other than his own. Until I couldn't color in the lines the way that he wanted me to, and then I was gone. How many times has he avoided conflict by telling you he's fine? You get about 1,000 I'm fines before you realize that nothing is fine and you are getting shown the door. And then you realize that you're an experiment, too. You and your son." Collin's voice was ice cold and Paige tried to push away the needling thoughts and focused on the times that Walter had attempted to sort out his feelings and such, if it all was an experiment he would never do that.

Would he?

"Update's complete." Happy said interrupting her thoughts.

"Now we just need to compress the file, send it from here to the reactor computer and no more nuclear meltdown." Collins said, in work mode.

"Sylvester, can you start the compression?" Walter's voice crackled through the comms.

"I can do that, yeah." Paige hated the stutter in Sly's voice.

.

.

"The code, Collins." demanded Walter as his hand hovered over the keypad.

"Nine five one." gave Collins.

"No, that's not it." Walter's voice was beginning to sound desperate.

"Could've sworn it was 951." He said, reminiscing in his voice. What had happened with the number nine hundred fifty one?

"Nine hundred and fifty one days ago, Mark and I disproved a section of the Higgs boson theory."

"Excellent work! It's 1199."

Paige assumed that this referenced to another day between the two. The actual code had to be something else monumental in their friendship. Maybe when they met or the day he was sent away. It would make sense if he was using his emotions.

"What is happening here?" yelled Cabe as he jogged up.

"I know Walter found out that I set this whole thing up. I was listening to your conversation at the reactor base. The whole place is mic'd." Collins yelled as if to calm everyone, like his declaration would make it all better.

"Just over a minute left!" said Sylvester nervously.

"What the hell's the holdup? Just give us the damn code!" yelled Cabe as he waved his gun around threateningly.

"Or what? You'll shoot me? That only guarantees you'll fail." Collins rolled his eyes. "Walter, how do you stand for such intellectual inferiors?"

"The code." Walter was deathly serious.

"I told you. It's 1199."

"One-one-nine-nine. it was May 20, it was a Thursday we stayed up all night in a diner discussing the quantum mechanics of time travel."

"We could have accomplished anything together, but you ruined that." Collins spoke as if he was speaking to a man who had committed one of the most vile of crimes.

"You hate me for what I did. I get it." said Walter, his voice going lower. "And I always debate my decision, but this isn't the right solution."

"And having me locked up was? Do you have any idea how badly that hurt me?"

The alarms for the center began to blare wildly at the signal that they were losing time. Paige thought of Ralph and hoped that if they were to fail that he could be alright. Even if she thought that it was impossible she still hoped.

"There's less than a minute." warned Sylvester.

"Do you think I'm afraid to die, Walter? I'm not afraid to die. My life ended the day that you destroyed our partnership, our friendship. I just wanted to show you that I could save everyone.

I just wanted back on the team." said Collins, a deranged glare in his eyes.

"Walter, that's it." Paige said, her eyes lighting up. Walter's head whipped towards her direction. "The day his life ended, the day he lost you."

"Seven hundred and eighty-two days."

"What's the date?!" yelled Sylvester.

"August 22, 2012!" yelled Walter back.

"No!" yelled Collins as Cabe promptly shot him in the knee. Paige cringed as the blood spread over his pants.

"All right, code's in, signal's up." said Walter, sighing appreciatively.

"Did it work?" asked Toby as the alarms faded away.

"I know this might be awkward, but I, for one, am against Mark rejoining the team." murmured Happy.

.

.

"I should have kept a closer eye on Collins." said Walter as he walked beside Paige, while they were waiting for everything to get sorted out.

"Well, why didn't you?" asked Paige gently.

"I was focused on the upgrade."

"You were focused on a friend. You were trying to make right what happened between you guys." said Paige as she glanced over at him. "So you trusted him."

"That implies I feel guilt." He said, his face scrunching up.

"Acting like a human being is never a mistake. Means you're evolving. It's nice to see that you're capable of that." said Paige, she couldn't help the fuzzy feeling that engulfed her at the idea.

.

.

"This is pretty ironic, isn't it? First day I see you in years I'm back to lockup. I showed you the outer limits of your intelligence and you couldn't handle it. You couldn't risk me, or anybody else, jeopardizing your team, your precious cyclone." Collin's voice filled with disgust.

"They are worth it." Walter said without conviction.

"Why them? Toby, Happy, Sylvester they can't touch my abilities. So why wasn't there room for one more? But there was." He said mockingly as Walter remained stoic.

"Paige. She binds us." Walter couldn't help but wonder what the odd feeling that he felt around her was?

"I'm going away. But I'll get out Maybe I'll see you back down the rabbit hole, Walter." Collin's sounded threatening, but Walter wouldn't let it get to him.

"I hope not."

.

.

"Hey, everyone." said Paige as she pushed open the Garage door. Her arms were full of the ingredients she had just bought at the grocery store. She intended on getting all of the geniuses together for bonding time and so her and Walter could finally break the news that they were dating.

"Hey." said Walter as he walked over to take some of the bags. "Uh, did we have, uh, a meeting scheduled?" he asked.

"No, we just dropped by." said Paige, as she sent him a look reminding him of what they needed to do. "Because even after you save the world, you're still all lost in thought, doing your own separate projects. Tonight we have a group project."

"Chicken piccata." said Paige as she set some of her bags on the kitchen table.

"I don't think we have a chicken thermometer." said Sylvester worriedly, he rushed over and started rifling through the drawers.

"Well, pizza would be more efficient." interjected Toby.

"We're all going to get out of our own heads for a while and cook Italian." Paige said hoping to end all other possible conversation topics involving the food.

"Sounds fine." added Walter. Toby gave him a strange look.

They cooked with jovial tones and Paige was proud that even Happy laughed. There was the ever present butterflies that were rocketing around in Paige's stomach at the prospect of telling the team their little secret.

Her eyes met Walter's for a moment before he quickly looked away at the food that was just finishing cooking.

As they ate their food laughter flew around freely. There was an ever present smile on each person's face.

"Oh, by the way, Paige and I are dating." said Walter casually.

The talking ceased and all eyes were shifting between Walter and Paige.

A/N: So there's one part in the story where Paige is supposed to go with Collins and Happy not Sly, but I got too far into it to change it. So this is just to let you guys know. Also I'm soooooo sooorrrryyy for how long it has been since I update, like six months. But, I lost motivation and I couldn't figure out how to write it. And it is a little bit shorter than the other chapters.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of this no matter how much I want to.