Hi all! Because the response to "Anniversary" was so positive and I really enjoyed writing it, this sequel is happening. I highly recommend reading "Anniversary" before this but that story is only six chapters so it won't take long.

I wanted to post today, if I could, because exactly one year ago I joined FFN and posted my first story, "Touch." It's been such a fun, unexpected experience for me and reignited my love for creative writing when I thought that chapter was closed. So thank you for reading and for all the kind things you've said to me over the past year—it meant a lot.

"Red or blue?"

Walter glanced over to the liaison, standing at the entrance of his closet and holding up two ties. He pursed his lips thoughtfully before shrugging and turning his attention back to pulling a brush through his messy hair. "You can choose."

Even in his peripheral vision, Walter could see the surprise in Paige's expression and he suppressed a smirk. He enjoyed her reaction when he didn't act the way she expected.

"Wow," she teased, a grin forming on her lips. "Walter O'Brien is ceding control over his wardrobe. This is a big day."

"It's just a tie," the genius answered noncommittally, but he knew exactly what she meant. As a child, he had very little say in the course of his life, controlled by powerful people who used his IQ to serve their own whims and agendas. This translated into some trust issues throughout his adulthood, and Walter knew he could be relentlessly stubborn even over minor details.

But if he'd ever had reservations about trusting Paige, they were gone after she refused to leave him with Collins. She had to know that he was allowing her control over things far more important than a scrap of fabric.

Paige held the two options against her sleeveless gray dress and decided on the blue one, pushing the red one back into the closet. She draped the chosen tie over the back of Walter's chair and dropped down onto the edge of his bed, crossing her ankles. "Huh."

"What?"

"Nothing," she said, but Walter could feel her eyes on him as he finished smoothing down a stubborn strand of hair and reached for his button-down. "It's just…you look really good in T-shirts. You should wear them more often."

He stared down at his white undershirt and frowned. "You don't like the way I dress?"

Walter's petulant tone made Paige laugh, and she stood up from the bed, crossing over to him. "Not what I said," she assured him, taking the button-down from his hands and circling around behind him, assisting his arms through the sleeves. When that was done, she returned to the front and smoothed the fabric over his shoulders before her fingers moved to secure the top button. "I appreciate that you dress like an adult. I just like seeing you without your armor, sometimes."

That armor had crumbled the second he admitted to Paige that he loved her, three months ago on one of the worst days of their lives. He'd never said those words to any woman he was romantically involved with, not to fulfill expectations in a relationship, not even to get out of trouble. Walter always argued that was because he didn't believe in the concept, and to express it falsely would betray his loyalty to scientific fact. But he'd started to think, now, maybe his problem was always that he had been waiting. Waiting for the woman that would make it true.

Spurred on by his thoughts, Walter leaned down and captured her lips suddenly, wrapping his hands around her waist and pulling her into him. He could feel Paige gasp softly against his mouth, but she recovered and gathered his shirt in her fists to keep him close. The liaison had gotten used to this, Walter kissing her without warning. He never meant to startle her; often, like now, he'd become lost in his thoughts and couldn't resist acting on them, particularly if he and Paige were alone. What seemed abrupt to her was actually the result of a mental process that Walter had simply not verbalized, and she accepted that it was his way of demonstrating what he might otherwise struggle to tell her.

It amazed him how natural it was, her hands on his body, and there was no debate about how much he enjoyed having his hands on her. Not that it was so easy in the beginning. Their relationship started unconventionally, with baggage, uncertainty, the memory of hurtful words and betrayal. But it started, regardless, because once the truth was out there didn't seem to be any possibility of going back.

Paige pulled back first, inhaling deeply to combat her breathlessness. "This shirt is good too."

Walter chuckled at her response and stepped back, releasing her and forcing his electrified hands to focus on the unfinished buttons. "We should leave within the next ten minutes. The traffic around Ralph's school is likely to be heavy today."

"How do you…?" Paige sighed, shaking her head. She often expressed envy toward Walter for his ability to switch from kissing her like that to resuming whatever task he was completing before, while she took significantly longer to think straight. The genius gave her a vague excuse about his multitasking skills, but she had no idea what she really did to him, or that he enjoyed having a similar impact on her. "Never mind. I'm going to check on Ralph, just meet us downstairs."

Walter nodded his agreement and Paige pushed through the door of the loft, taking a brief second at the top of the stairs to pat down her hair and swipe around her mouth to erase any smudged lipstick. The corner of her lips curved up behind her hand. The genius who seemed so cold and uptight to the rest of the world was capable of much more intensity and passion than she ever expected. Paige had a feeling she'd only scratched the surface with him.

But she wanted to know everything.

"Mom?"

Paige started out of her thoughts at Ralph's voice. She hustled down the stairs and found him slumped in the rolling chair at his desk. When Walter had revealed Ralph's new workstation, complete with office supplies and computer equipment that Paige knew had to be top-of-the-line, she'd insisted that it wasn't necessary. But Ralph was a part of Scorpion, he argued—or would be, in time—and Walter noted the logic of investing in the boy's intelligence.

She had a hunch there was another angle to it. If Collins had his way, Paige and Ralph would be thousands of miles away, cut off from any contact with the team. The desk was Walter's way of attaching permanence, a statement that the young genius was right where he belonged.

"What's up, buddy?" Paige bit her lip as she studied her son's face, a little pale and sweaty in the overhead lights. "Are you okay? You look like you might be sick."

"I have a temperature of…" Ralph shut his eyes and thought carefully. "Ninety-nine point forty-seven."

She crouched down and lifted the back of her hand to his forehead. "You're still within the normal range, for now. Do you think you might just be a little nervous?"

He considered the possibility. "About my speech?"

"Yeah." Ralph was excellent at staying calm in stressful situations, and giving his middle school valedictorian speech was hardly the scariest thing he'd ever done, but she read that some people feared public speaking more than death and she didn't want to discount any apprehension he might have. "It's okay if you are, sweetie."

"Do you think it would explain my dizziness?"

Paige shrugged. She was hardly a nurse, but she had been a shy kid once, and it tugged at her heart a little to see Ralph struggling with uncertainty. "Maybe. Listen, let's go to your ceremony. You'll give your speech, and if you still don't feel well, we can just go home and rest, okay?"

Ralph nodded wordlessly—Paige marveled at how many quirks he and Walter shared, and she wondered if her son was copying him intentionally or if they were just that similar—and she pressed a kiss against the side of his head before straightening up.

"Alright, kiddo. Time to crush graduation."

Walter wasn't the best at reading nonverbal cues, but when the liaison shifted in her chair and pulled down the hem of her dress for the ninth time, he felt it was safe to say that something was wrong. "Paige?"

"Hm?" She glanced up to see his look of concern and smiled unconvincingly. "I'm fine. I just…" Paige tilted her head from side to side, debating whether or not to express her concerns and risk sounding overprotective, before she blurted out, "Do you think I should have made Ralph come? He really didn't look good at the garage. Maybe I should have taken him straight home."

Walter reached awkwardly over the armrest, taking her hand in his and squeezing it. The chairs in Ralph's auditorium were too close together and Paige was practically burning up from the combined heat of two hundred attendees, but she appreciated the reassuring gesture regardless. "First of all…" A woman sitting in front of them cast a dirty look in their direction, so he dropped his voice to a whisper. "First of all, I don't think you can make Ralph do anything he doesn't want to do. Secondly, this is an important day in his life. He worked hard for this; you were right to ensure that he experiences it."

Paige released a deep breath, feeling some of the weight lift off her shoulders. "Thank you." Somewhere deep in her anxious brain, she realized the principal was announcing her son's name and snapped her attention back to the stage. Ralph crossed over to the podium and Paige tightened her grip on Walter, noting that the genius also seemed to be tensing up with anticipation.

"Thank you for being here," he greeted from the stage, a politeness in his tone that Paige knew was the one thing he hadn't learned from Scorpion. "I'm going to keep this short, because you all tuned out as soon as your children received their diplomas."

The audience burst into laughter, and Paige knew she was beaming like a proud mother. Toby had helped Ralph write his speech, and her only real contribution was a quick scan for any double entendres the shrink might have snuck in. The rest was all her son.

"I've always had a complicated relationship with school. Not with the classes, because I love learning. With everything else. I've struggled my entire life to fit in. I knew that I saw the world differently from other people, but I didn't understand what purpose it served."

She swallowed hard as a decade of memories flooded back to her at once. The years she'd misunderstood Ralph, thought he was disabled in some way while missing out on the incredible gifts he had to offer. Paige was sure she would always feel some guilt over that, but at least things were different now.

"It's easy to get competitive, or to feel insecure, about our academic accomplishments. But my mother works with some of the smartest people in the world, and I'm going to share what I've learned from them." Ralph looked straight ahead into the audience; with his memory, he didn't even need notecards, though Paige had insisted he should bring them just in case. "The first thing I've learned is that there are different kinds of intelligence. We all have strengths and weaknesses. On a team, all of those strengths are necessary and all of those weaknesses can be overcome."

Paige glanced over at Walter. She was getting choked up, and she'd been prepared, so she couldn't imagine what was going through the genius's mind as he watched Ralph intently.

"The other thing I've come to understand is that any kind of learning, any type of intelligence, is only worthwhile if it helps people. No matter what your strengths are, no matter how you see the world, you can use that to make a difference in someone's life when they're in need. And you should. If you ever wonder why you are the way you are—what your purpose is in life—just know that one day, you will be needed. Thank you."

Paige frantically wiped the tears away from her eyes. She thought her heart was going to come out of her chest as the attendees applauded for Ralph. It seemed like, for the first time, everyone else could see him the way she did.

The rest of the team clapped almost deafeningly loud next to her, Toby letting out repeated whistles. But Paige couldn't stop looking at Walter. He was staring straight ahead, but the glassiness in his eyes spoke volumes.

"I know," she breathed, wrapping her free hand around his upper arm and leaning in closer to him. Paige ducked her head, laughing at herself in embarrassment at how uncontrollably emotional she was.

Walter stiffened suddenly, and Paige pulled back, worried that she had pushed too much physical contact on him when he was clearly already overwhelmed. "Sorry."

"No, Paige, something's wrong."

The liaison followed his gaze to the stage and clutched his arm as she realized the reason for his concern. Whatever color had remained in Ralph's face that morning was drained, and he was sweating profusely, swaying slightly in his spot as the principal shook his hand.

"Stay here," Walter insisted, already halfway up from his seat. "I'll get him."

Ralph took one step away from the podium and collapsed.