Honestly I've been looking forward to writing a fic about Waige having their first blowout fight as a couple, and last night's episode (my heart) seemed like a good opportunity. *Evil laugh*

Paige sat in the car, staring at the garage. She'd arrived five minutes ago, leisurely sipping her coffee and checking her e-mail. Stalling. Which was illogical. The man she loved was inside, probably waiting for her to arrive, and on any other morning she would welcome a bit of exclusive time with him. They didn't get that often. She liked the way Walter seemed to light up when she walked in, greeting her with more coffee and a quick kiss.

But last night had been…awkward. Walter had pushed her away dozens of times, but he'd never brushed her off like that. Not since they had ended their impasse and started one of the most aggravating and fulfilling relationships in her life. She knew Dopey Walter wasn't around to stay, and that was okay. She just hadn't expected Genius Walter to steer quite so far in the other direction.

Paige sighed, dropping her head against the seat briefly before she forced herself to wedge the door open with her foot and slide out, locking it behind her.

She stopped short once she was in the garage, unprepared for the sight of Walter sleeping soundly in his chair, his head buried in his arms on the desk. The blackboard was densely covered with yellow chalk and some of the writing appeared different from his. Her hunch was further confirmed by the two coffee cups laying side-by-side nearby.

"Walter?" Paige shook his shoulder gently, running her fingers up through his hair. It took a few tries before the genius stirred awake, blinking and rubbing his face.

"Paige?" He looked around at the empty garage, frowning. "What time is it? Where is everyone?"

"It's eight. And they'll be here later." Sylvester had an alderman meeting, Cabe was helping Allie with a leak in her apartment, and Happy and Toby were 'picking up medicine,' which could have been literal or a euphemism. "You didn't make it to the loft last night?"

Walter shook his head, grunting groggily. "I, uh, started a project and I guess I got…caught up." He glanced at the board before pushing slowly up from his desk. "I don't even remember falling asleep."

She rubbed his back, fixing his disheveled collar with her other hand. "I'll make you some coffee. You should go upstairs and shower."

"Yeah. Okay," he mumbled, stopping as an afterthought to ask, "H-How was your night?"

Restless. Boring. A little lonely. "Fine, I guess."

Walter nodded. "Good. Um, thank you for understanding that I needed to focus on work last night. We made real progress on my ideas. It was a satisfying cognitive experience after yesterday's nonsense."

"We? You and Sylvester?"

The surprised look on his face alerted her to the fact that he was most definitely not talking about Sylvester. And since Happy and Toby were gone before her…

"Florence," she muttered, biting her lip to tamp down her visceral reaction. Walter swore up and down that his dream about her was meaningless. The chemist herself had insisted that she would never develop those types of feelings for him. But what else could she possibly imagine when he'd clearly blown her off to spend all night with their neighbor?

Walter swallowed, studying her uncertainly. "Paige, it was strictly…"

"Save it, Walter. I'm not interested." She grabbed the discarded cups and stalked off to the kitchen, feeling like an idiot. He wasn't Drew, she knew that, but the same dread that surrounded his infidelity was currently clawing in her stomach.

The genius followed, suddenly seeming much more alert. "Paige, you're being illogical," he said as she dropped the mugs into the sink with a loud clang. "She is a talented chemist and her assistance on my project was invaluable—."

"Great. Hire her on full-time. And then you won't even need me, because I'm not a genius and I don't have a badge," she snapped, starting to walk away again—she wasn't entirely sure where—before Walter grabbed her arm.

"Paige, what's happening right now?" The genuine confusion on his face made her falter, just for a second, but yelling seemed easier than breaking down, so she shook him off.

"I don't care about your stupid project, Walter. I care that you were completely uninterested in spending time with your girlfriend, and now I have to find out that you stayed up all night with the woman that you dreamt about being married to. Did you think for a second how that might make me feel?"

Walter furrowed his eyebrows, his expression morphing from lost to annoyed. "I wasn't aware that I needed permission to work on other interests outside of our relationship."

"So that's a no, then." Paige stormed back into the office, feeling like she would explode if she stood still. "You know what? I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I can't stimulate your brain, Walter. I'm sorry that one day of being like me was so horribly unpleasant for you that you needed to hang out with smart people to recover. I'm sorry that I'm just your dumb girlfriend who forces you to lower your IQ for her."

Even she was surprised by the venom in her voice. Walter halted in front of her desk, looking at her like she had sprouted two heads. "That's not true. You are exceptionally intelligent and I've never told you otherwise."

"Right. Just not as smart as Florence." Facing a lack of anything else to do with her hands, Paige channeled her frustration into organizing the loose paperwork on her desk. "Even after all this time, Walter, you will always choose your intelligence over me."

"I don't understand what that means."

"It means that we waited three years to be together and I still come second to your IQ." She bit her lip, fighting the urge to cry and scream and escape all at the same time. "When you were loopy on that case, you asked for my help. You asked me to be your partner. And you said t-that you envied my EQ. You asked me to teach you about music. For an hour of your life, you were normal, and it was—." Walter's face fell and she stopped abruptly. "I d-didn't mean that."

"No, let's talk about the case." He crossed his arms in front of him, pressing his lips into a tight line. "I remember every second. Everything you said to me. And I remember how disappointed you were when my mental faculties were restored."

"That's not fair."

"That person that I was underground is not me, Paige. I've never stopped trying to develop my EQ to connect with you, but if you need someone whose IQ isn't in the way, you have to know I'm never going to be that person."

Paige released a sharp breath, dropping the papers in her hands. "I never asked you to be, but your IQ isn't everything! If you keep blocking me out of that part of your life and you don't have any interest in the things I care about, then what the hell are we doing?"

"My IQ is everything," Walter rebutted. "It's what defines me. It is the only thing I can possibly contribute to the world. To Scorpion. Hell, to Ralph. Losing it, even temporarily, is terrifying and you can't possibly understand what that's like."

"Yeah. Of course. I have no idea what it feels like to lose something important," she bit out. They hadn't fought like this since he fired her. But the voice in her head telling her it was a mistake was drowned out by the sound of her heart pounding. "Maybe we are just too different. Maybe we were both stupid to keep forcing this."

Walter swallowed, staring at her with an unreadable expression. She wanted him to insist that she was wrong. That their differences weren't important because they loved each other. But he didn't respond.

Paige shrugged. "That's it? You're not gonna say anything?"

"I don't know what to say."

She heard someone—probably Cabe—pull behind the garage and park. She didn't want to him to see her like this. She didn't want to be there, period.

Paige sniffed, hastily clearing her damp eyes. "Maybe if you were deprived of oxygen, huh?" she said before she grabbed her purse, walking away from her silent boyfriend and back toward the car she probably never should have left.