Well, I said hopefully no more fix it stories but after reading ScorplinginTraining's new story a thought struck me and this story came out of it Sunday and so I indulged it. It will be a 3 chapter story, I don't know if in the future it will continue or not. I certainly have more than enough other story lines to focus on if I want to write stories based on the show. But anyway, to the Adventure! -Tim

Walter O'Brien sat staring at his computer screen. He ran his hand down his face as he tried to figure out what his next move was. The corporate account had enough money so that he could keep the lease and utilities on the Garage for another ten months. His personal accounts were better but he had to maintain that in case he had to move out of the building.

He looked about the Garage and in the last six months he had cleaned, rearranged and sold off most of the clutter. It was much more efficient but for some reason it didn't bring him any feelings of satisfaction. He looked up as he heard the Garage door open and he saw Cabe walking in.

"Hey Walt, just saw the guys outside. They didn't look too happy," Cabe put away his sunglasses.

Walter nodded, "Yea, I just terminated them. For supposed geniuses they were very average."

Cabe smiled with a slight chuckle, "Compared to you maybe. So what's our next step?"

Walter drew in a long, slow, deep breath. "To be perfectly honest Cabe I don't know. I think I have been fooling myself all this time. I haven't been able to land a private job in three months. Homeland hasn't had much either. Maybe it is time I forget Scorpion and take Richard's offer and go work for him full time."

Cabe sighed, "Yea, the Homeland thing is because of me. Carlson hates me and by extension everything I'm involved with. It didn't help that we whipped his butt in that ballgame and Homeland has to pay double for Scorpion's services."

Walter nodded. "In six months I've hired three different sets of people trying to replace the guys and none of them have worked out. I can't really afford to hire anyone else without any jobs to rebuild what is left in the corporate account."

Cabe nodded, "Hey, I wanted to let you know. I can still pick up Ralph for you tomorrow afternoon but Allie and I will be taking most of the weekend off and spending it up at my buddy's cabin. We should be back by three Sunday afternoon so I can take him back home. If he's still coming to stay with you that is."

Walter smiled for the first time in a while, "That's the plan at any rate. Paige never calls me anymore. I occasionally get a short text from her. So I guess it is still going on. I'm grateful she is still allowing Ralph to come over and spend time with me."

Cabe looked at Walter, "I really figured you guys would have gotten this settled by now. I really miss the guys. Well, maybe not Toby's mouth."

The left side of Walter's mouth curled up in mirth. "I've tried Cabe. I can only assume she just doesn't care anymore. I guess in some respects I don't blame her. I just wish we could come to an understanding."

Walter looked at his watch, "Well I don't think I will be getting any calls about possible jobs in the next twenty minutes. I might as well switch the phones to the answering machine."

Cabe nodded, "I've got to get going to pick Allie up. Her car is in the shop, and I've got just enough time to get over there by the time she gets off. I just wanted to let you know about the weekend. Have a good night son, see you in the morning."

Walter smiled while looking off towards the back of the Garage, "Have a good night Cabe."

Walter sat there for a while longer before he reached for the phone to switch it over and the phone rang. His hand jerked back out of shock before he realized what happened and he picked up the phone, "Scorpion, Walter O'Brien speaking."

"Hi, Mr. O'Brien, my name is Sarah Franklin and I need your help," a pleasant female voice said over the phone.

Walter smiled, "Of course Ms Franklin. How can Scorpion help?"

"My business is failing and I need your help identifying the reasons why and help me fix them." Sarah told him quietly.

Walter frowned, "Ms Franklin, my experiences with business models is not really a strong suit."

"I understand that, but to be honest Mr. O'Brien, a man with a reported 197 IQ has got to be able to analyze and determine better efficiencies that can help me improve my business. Please, I'm a small business and I've got three employees who need jobs and there is my child. Please, I'm begging. I don't have a lot of money but if you can help me turn it around I'd be happy to set up a profit sharing venture with you to make up for the shortage." Sarah's voice was strained and on the verge of tears.

Walter sighed. Since Paige entered his life his emotions more often than not influenced his decisions. She had really brought his emotions out. Even though he had tried these past six months to shut them off, they still crept in to influence his decisions.

"Mr. O'Brien? Are you still there?" Sarah asked desperately.

"Yes, sorry. I was just thinking. Sure, I can try to take a look and advise you. No guarantee though," Walter answered.

"Oh thank you Mr. O'Brien. Is there anyway we can meet now to get your first impression?" Sarah asked.

Walter looked at the ceiling as he sighed again, "Sure. Do you want to bring your business plan over here?"

Sarah paused, "Well, it might be more helpful if you could come meet me here. I'm sure it would help more than just looking at some papers."

Walter shook his head as he became slightly annoyed, "Sure. Where should I meet you then?"

Sarah gave him her address. He looked at his watch, "Okay, I can probably be there in about forty five minutes."

"Thank you Mr. O'Brien you have no idea how much I appreciate this," Sarah told him before hanging up.

Walter hung up his phone and looked at the piece of paper he wrote the address on and his brow furrowed. The address seemed familiar. He stood after turning on the answering machine and started to leave but stopped and grabbed his jacket. "Might as well look somewhat professional," Walter said to himself. He heard chittering and looked over at Ferret Bueller in his cage. He smiled, "I'll be back."

Starting his car his brilliant mind finally remembered the address was for Nemos's diner. His brow scrunched up before he finally shrugged, "A job is a job." He told himself as he took off.

He turned into the parking lot and didn't see any other cars and tilted his head, "Dinner time and no customers? How bad is their food?" He wondered as he parked his car.

He walked up and opened the door and stepped inside. The smell was a little musty. Speaking quietly, "That could attribute to a decline of business. No ambience either, if her business plan is as good no wonder her business is failing."

He looked around but didn't see anyone. A sign read "Please Seat yourself." He walked over to a booth, "Ms Franklin? It's Walter O'Brien."

"Oh, thank you Mr. O'Brien, please have a seat I'll be right there." Sarah said from in back.

Walter looked at the booth and noticed a small amount of dust and sighed as he slid onto the bench on one side. He sat his brief case on the top of the table and folded his hands and waited.

"Would you like a glass of water?" A familiar voice said as a woman stepped up next to the booth.

Walter looked up in shock, "Paige? What is going on? What are you doing here? Where is Ms. Franklin?" Something seemed to click in his mind, "Franklin, that was the name your Mother us to lure us to come out to the building with the reactor in it."

Paige nodded as she sat down in the booth across from him. "Please forgive my deception Walter. I wasn't sure you would agree to see me and I needed to see you. My friend Sarah was reluctant to call you but after I pleaded with her she finally did."

"Is Ralph okay?" Walter kind of panicked.

Paige smiled and nodded, "Ralph is fine. How have you been?"

Walter's brow furrowed, "Paige, what is this about?"

Paige's expression turned sad, "Can't I inquire about you? We haven't spoken in a long time."

"That isn't my fault Paige. I've reached out to you every week, sometimes a couple of times a week." Walter got a bit defensive.

Paige smiled weakly, "I know that Walter, I wasn't trying to blame you, honest."

Walter wasn't sure what he was going to do but he had to step back from the table. He started to stand but froze when Paige quickly reached out and put her right hand on top of his left hand. Their individual energies rushed through their hands into the other and they both slightly gasped, "Please Walter, stay?"

Walter swallowed hard as he slowly nodded before he sat back down.

Paige started to slowly drag her fingers back off his hand when his fingers uncurled and slipped between hers and they both looked down at their hands as their fingers interlocked. Paige smiled with a slight tear as Walter had a hard time swallowing his saliva.

"Walter, there is no easy way to say what I need to say so please hear me out. I'll do my best to be direct and efficient," Paige told him softly.

Walter shook his head, "I appreciate that Paige, but take your time if you need to. I don't have anyplace to be. No, it isn't that I don't have anyplace to be, I just can't think of anyplace else I'd rather be than with you."

Paige smiled and nodded, "Centipede Partners is failing and failing hard. We had some success at first but around our fourth job it all started collapsing. Toby and Happy both complain about how you ran Scorpion and even though we set up CP to be an equal partnership Happy is almost as non-committal as Sly in decisions and Toby is nothing but snark and attitude but doesn't help with any decisions. Everything is all dumped on me."

Paige looked up from their hands almost fearing the look of him gloating she would see. She saw Walter staring at her and she smiled as their eyes met, all she saw was love and compassion in his eyes. "I can understand why you ran Scorpion as you did. But that isn't really the issue. We just haven't been able to secure any new jobs. We've got enough money for maybe another month and that's it. I honestly don't believe we'll get another job before we're broke and rather than see all of us struggling, I wanted to ask you. If I can convince the others to apologize to you, would you take them back into Scorpion?"

Walter picked up on her terminology of taking the others back but nothing about her. His head turned as he looked out the window, "What happened to Nemos?"

Paige looked puzzled, "He's retired. He's looking for someone to buy this place and agreed to let me use it this afternoon."

"To be honest Paige, I don't know. If they are just apologizing to have a job I don't think I would care to hear it. Thank you by the way for allowing Ralph to continue to be part of my life. I know you don't have too."

She smiled and then saw tears in his eyes, "You don't have to thank me for that Walter. I wouldn't try to break up your friendship with him. As for them apologizing, I don't know if I could even get them to, let alone to be sincere about it."

Walter nodded. He hadn't tried to remove his hand from hers. If anything his grip tightened, but not painfully, almost afraid she would walk away again. "I honestly don't know Paige. I mean, I understand why you left me, maybe not why you didn't want to try and work through it. But the others, if and I really mean a big if I agree to them coming back, it will be provisional and it will not be like it was before."

Paige nodded. She wondered if he'd picked up on her words of seeking a place just for the others or not. Probably she told herself, he sees words so her choice had to stick out like a sore thumb to him.

"The big problem is that Scorpion isn't much better off. The jobs I've had, some of the money went into paying other supposed geniuses I'd hired to take everyone's place. I just fired the third group earlier. If I brought everyone back at the same rate of pay and we don't get some work immediately Scorpion will be dead in six months. To be honest I was seriously considering of accepting Richard's last offer to come work full time for him."

Walter's free hand came up and a finger was tracing the veins in the back of Paige's hand. He noticed she'd lost some weight since he'd last saw her. She had a bit of dark circles he could see through her concealer and a slight puffiness under her eyes. His mind had picked up a hundred different little differences about her that told him how much stress she had been under in the last six months and it was taking its toll on her in every sense.

Paige looked thoughtful, "It is kind of funny that together Scorpion was doing so well, but separate neither Scorpion nor CP did well."

Walter nodded, "Well maybe not funny, Scorpion was the perfect blend. While I seemed to be able to focus the others we couldn't seem to connect to those outside of Scorpion without you."

Paige smiled, "And in CP I could connect us to the outside but we can't seem to come together effectively."

With complete sincerity he asked, "How have you been?"

Paige smiled, "Lonely. Tired, no, more like exhausted. I have no idea how you ever put up with everything and for more than four years and I feel like I am ready for the big sleep after six months. You never did answer me when I asked how you were."

Walter nodded, "Remember, my emotional side is very stunted. So not as much of my energy is lost through emotions, while you are normal emotionally and the antics of us geniuses drain your energy through your emotions. I haven't been good to be honest, lonely, frustrated, disappointed, troubled, mad at myself, sad, depressed. I even thought about moving back to Ireland to be completely honest. It has been a real struggle without you. Whatever little emotion you were able to bring out of me has mostly been lost. My employees' favorite words upon being fired were what a tool of a robot I was."

Paige watched as his fingers moved slightly further up her arm, tracing over her ulna. She knew that wasn't true, she could read his emotions so easily sitting here with him. She was relishing his touch, almost drinking it in, "Walter, I'm sorry I ever belittled your growth emotionally. I hope you can believe that."

Walter seemed thoughtful for a bit, "What about you?" Walter finally asked.

Paige frowned, "I just told you how I was Walter."

Walter smiled, "No, I mean what about you and a job? Did you have other plans?"

Paige sighed as she shook her head, "Walter, I would love one. But after what I did, what I said. I mean, I am so sorry for that but I can't imagine you'd want me around. And even if you did want to hire me back, I'm not sure I could be around you all the time without wanting to touch you, kiss you. To know you were mine and I was yours again, to become a couple again. Your touch right now is sweet torture."

Walter's head snapped up instantly at that. "I'm sorry," he tried to pull both hands away. But she grabbed his free hand and held his fingers in her other hand.

Tomorrow chapter 12 of 'A Knight in Lancaster', it isn't the end of it, sorry if I gave that impression. It is just the end of the fighting. -Tim