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sydmarch · 2 years

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I've been wanting to ask you this for a while, what do you think of the season finale? And who do you think is at fault? And how would you have written that fanfic you said you'd write in a post?

hi i finally have access to my laptop & have had a chance to clear my head enough to get around to answering this!! first off THANK YOU for asking bcus this is the kind of thing i could talk about for hours lol so let's get into it.

i think the s4 finale was a godawful ooc mess of poor writing & forced drama. even as just a season finale it's bad but as a SERIES finale?? worst series finale of all time and i say that as a fan of supernatural lmao.

in terms of who's at fault, this might not be the answer you want to hear but personally i felt like for a significant part of s4 (ESPECIALLY the finale) the characters were so ooc that my brain isn't able to engage with who's at fault in a watsonian/in universe way - the only ones i can see as at fault for all the bullshit that goes down are THE WRITERS because the characters started acting in ways that completely contradicted everything we knew about them.

quick sidebar from the characters to add that i feel like it was stupid to go for yet another version of the whole "team breaks up then reconciles" thing because they had already done that before.. although never with that big a split, so i guess it had the potential to be compelling if the spit hadn't felt so forced & if we had actually gotten a s5 to watch them reconcile.

pretty much everyone felt out of character to me in the finale but ESPECIALLY walter, paige, and sly. oh and FLORENCE it absolutely didn't make any sense for her to develop feelings for walter & that's not just the part of me who had hoped she would end up with sly talking.

the arguments and drama just felt so forced and unnatural like, you're really telling me the same walter who said to sly "your refusal to let go of the wonderment of childhood, how you look at the world with open eyes, your innocence is your brilliance, and anyone who tries to tell you any different is dead wrong" in a christmas car roll said in the finale "if you were a real man instead of a comic book reading baby boy you would’ve asked florence out ages ago"??? it does NOT make sense & i see no explanation for it other than poor writing & the writers trying to just force a conflict.

in earlier seasons it felt like when there was conflict between characters it MEANT something, it made sense with their characters, & it was satisfying to watch how it played out. an example sticking w the walter/sly dynamic for now - when sly was afraid to tell walter he was dating megan & walter was upset when he found out, only for it to turn out that walter was upset because he was worried about sly getting hurt and not because he didn't think he was good enough for megan like sly was worried about. THAT was conflict that's actually GOOD and MAKES SENSE, not some bullshit that doesn't fit with the characters we know and love like the finale split.

getting back to ooc moments in the finale tho - walter was totally justified to call out sly for bringing megan into the whole mess, but like sly would never do that in the first place?? i was floored that they had him bring up megan like that it was honestly disrespectful sly and megan. i remember in my liveblog while watching the finale i literally said "were the writers on crack" regarding that part and i still stand by that lmfao. they really just shit on sly's character to throw more drama into this mess.

i have to talk about paige as well here... in early seasons i always loved paige & felt like she got a lot of undue hate from the fandom in back then but come season 4 i can definitely see where some of that negativity was coming from. imo part of what made her go downhill was her already established negative traits coming out more often (like from the beginning paige has always had a tendency towards jealousness, pettiness, & idk if i should call it internalized misogyny or the writer's misogyny showing through her (like the "we should give it to a scent tracking dog who specializes in finding sluts" directed at stella in s2)) so those things i can fault paige the character for in the finale. even if i wish they hadn't chosen to exaggerate those traits, they do align with paige as we've seen her at her worst.

what i do fault the writers for completely wrt paige is how just like, mean they made her for no reason? and mean towards walter that just don't make sense when compared to how she acted with him in the past. watching paige go off on walter saying shit like "I wanna go to the beach without hearing marine biology facts or go to dinner without hearing about the inefficiency of putting parsley on the plate" had me feeling like who IS this woman and what did you do with paige? it didn't make any sense for her to be so frustrated with always having to do "genius stuff" and wanting to just do "normal stuff" sometimes when they had already known each other for years before they started dating, so like what exactly did you expect? their relationship was SUPPOSED to be grounded on the fact that while she wanted to help walter better himself, she loved him and understood him, and accepted his genius traits in a way no other non-genius really had before. but then throughout all of s4 it felt a lot more like paige was trying to change walter and turn him into someone she wanted him to be than it felt like she actually loved him for who he was.

of course to some extent paige was always working to change walter i mean, that was basically her job description, but in early seasons it never felt like she wanted to change him so much, or so selfishly, or in ways that weren't just to help him be more well-adjusted without actually changing him fundamentally. s4 largely left me feeling like what happened to the paige that wanted walter to be the best version of himself he could be while also embracing himself and everything that made him different? where's the paige who ordered fermented fish? my feelings about waige at this point are basically "they were one of the most ships of all time until they actually started dating, then it all went downhill". they had so much potential as a couple but the writers kept fucking it up & the finale was the ultimate fuck up on that front.

i don't really have many issues with walter's characterization in the finale other than what i've gone over already in this post but one thing that consistently frustrated me with his late seasons writing was how the writers would just let him stagnate. we'd have a whole episode about walter learning a specific lesson then episodes later he'd be acting exactly like he was before he'd learned said lesson. it felt like SUCH a disservice to his character especially with all the growth we'd seen from him in earlier seasons.

to name just one example - looking at a christmas car roll as an episode i love it & it's a very fun watch (despite the fact that to me it marks the point where the season starts going downhill because of the stupid dream that everyone made way too big a deal about lol) but it didn't really feel like it fit with season 4? it's something that really would've felt more at home in season 1 or 2. "walter learns to appreciate his team" is already a lesson that's been learned multiple times by now, it doesn't make any sense for him to even be in a place where he NEEDS to be relearning this lesson in s4. he should've been far past that but it's like the writers never allowed most of his character development to stick long term. i wish s4 had allowed him more room for actual growth instead of the same lessons repeated over & over again - it felt like he was more developed in earlier seasons & the writers brought him backwards which is such a waste of potential with him.

anyway that's enough about that because this is getting long & a bit off topic from the finale itself but i kind of had to go into my thoughts on s4 in general since they shape my thoughts on the finale so much lol. as far as fic, i had a few vague ideas planned about something with a canon-divergent retelling of the events of s4 tackling a lot of the things i mentioned above.

the most fleshed out idea i'd had in mind tho was one that, for the most part, stuck w the canon of s4 & still had the team split into scorpion 2.0 and centipede with the same people choosing the same sides. the idea started purely out of spite lmao in my mind i had to prove to the writers that ok, you really need the team divided? here's how to do that while writing it in a way that made sense, keeping the post split-teams the same, and WITHOUT fucking up everyone's characterizations. i never really wrote a rough draft but did come up with a bunch of bullet points and a kind of general outline for what i had in mind:

-paige is still upset with walter because yes - she can be petty irrational and jealous. so i'd let her get a little jealous, but i'd cut all of the stuff about "not wanting to do genius stuff all the time" and "emotionally you'll never be more than 16". basically i'd allow her to be jealous & petty but cut all the meanness & the end goal would be for her to actually ADDRESS her pettiness and jealousy by the time they reconcile.

so they would still break up but it would be partially about the jealousy and partially paige being upset/disappointed about walter lying more than anything else. instead of thinking that he'lll never mature emotionally, she'd feel like he isn't mature enough to handle their relationship yet. once we get to the part where the team/waige reconcile it can be based on both walter gaining some more perspective (i don't want it to sound like put all the blame on him here or anything - paige did a pretty shit job explaining the whole white lies thing and was pretty hypocritical about it but i blame that more on the writers trying to force drama than on her) and paige working on her issues too, especially jealousy. so by the time they get back together they're both more mature & prepared to be in a relationship with each other. i'd like to have him write her another love song & have him sing it for her right before they get back together.

-sly still gets rejected by florence & some part of him still blames walter but much less so than in canon. i'd get rid of all the "you made her fall in love with you/you stole her from me" nonsense and make it more like he's projecting his own issues with self worth onto being upset with walter. considering his primary arc throughout the season was around his self worth, what am i really doing with my life, will i ever find some after megan, etc, it would make sense for him to take the rejection poorly and lash out but not so much out of direct jealousy towards walter but more in a sense that he feels overshadowed by him, and envious of the fact that walter has paige while he doesn't have anyone.

the aftermath/reconciliation arc i imagine for sly would be more about finding his own sense of self worth without feeling like he necessarily needs to "find someone". but then i think i'd still have him find someone anyway because it'd be nice and he deserves it. as much as i shipped him and florence during early s4 i don't think i'd have it be her, more likely i'd invent a character for this.

-florence isn't romantically interested in sly OR walter. she sticks with walter on scorpion 2.0 purely because they're friends and they work well together (this would probably be something paige gets EXTREMELY jealous about & would be one of the things she spends a lot of time working through.) also because it'd be pretty awkward to join centipede after turning down sly. i never really figured out what i'd do with her after that, i feel like we didn't really get enough info in s4 about florence as a character rather than just like, florence as a plot device/source of drama. to be fair it's been a while since i last watched s4 but even looking through my old notes i don't have anything about like an arc i'd like to see for florence so i feel like i'm remembering correctly & there's just not a whole lot to go on.

i also wasn't able to come up with any reasonings for toby & happy to leave that i'm truly satisfied with lol. all throughout s4 i was just waiting for them to decide to adopt WAY sooner because i mean. it's the OBVIOUS choice for happy & absolutely ridiculous that they jumped through so many hoops & did all these fertility treatments. should NOT have taken her so long to realize she wanted to adopt.

if it were up to me i would've had happy decide she wanted to adopt as soon as she decided she wanted kids. so in this scenario maybe i'd have them already with an adopted kid & they decide to leave & be part of centipede because they're just stressed out from all of the drama. i don't feel like there's much i'd need to change with cabe here, it's obvious he'd stand by walter.

i was never able to really wrap my brain around ralph in this scenario maybe bcus i'm not good with kids lol but i was LIVID that they just left him out of the finale completely when he should've been one of the most important characters to take into consideration for something like this?? yes obviously ralph has grown up a lot since s1 but when the team split in the past how it would impact ralph was ALWAYS a big thing that was taken into account. he wanted paige & walter to get together so badly, he always wanted walter to be his dad (personally i always thought it was kind of dumb how that stuff was written - imo walter WAS his dad from early on. he doesn't have to be dating paige to be ralph's dad. the found family show needn't be so beholden to the nuclear family but that's a whole 'nother post!) and they just did not include him in the episode or even bring him up.

anyway this post kind of got away from me but that's pretty much the gist of my thoughts on the finale & what i would have done differently!

#sorry it took me so long to respond to this one i've been going through some shit but genuinely appreciate you asking & giving me the #opportunity to go off about all of this. much needed distraction to switch my brain into hyperfixation mode #cbs-scorpion-coffee-shop #ask #scorpion #cbs scorpion

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sopercabeth · 3 years

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Coffee Cups & Terrible Liars

Hello! This is a fanfic I wrote back in 2017 when Scorpion still existed. Simpler times, I guess :-( It was originally published on my profile in FFN (@dauntlessmermaid) but I figured it was time for it to see the light of day here on Tumblr.

If you wish to read it on FFN, click here

Summary: "Well, he had talked to her, once. A very short, very uncomfortable conversation with his usual unfiltered self and a poorly delivered diagnosis of anemia that went just about as good as anyone would expect. " A Coffee Shop AU in which Walter is strangely fixated on a certain honey-colored haired barista and he's a little too keen on finding out why.

A/N: I do not own Scorpion or any content/characters related to the show. All rights belong to CBS :) Enjoy!

Unlike many people, Walter O'Brien found the thunderous bad weather sort of soothing. Especially given that the odds of seeing one in Los Angeles weren't very promising these days.

The surprisingly loud and rhythmic chirping of the rain drops against the roof top and the occasional thunder booming in the distance worked wonders by silencing his overloaded mind for a bit. Walter was inclined to believe that, even without his eidetic memory, the rain would always bring him back to Callan's endless green landscapes and simple lifestyle. This time instead, seeing the already flooded streets turning into rivers of dirt and all kinds garbage, he thought this thunderstorm was not really bringing back sweet childhood memories. Not that he had many of them to speak of…

The electricity had been down for almost an hour now, and even with the rain easing his mind he was beginning to feel as anxious as the blond-haired boy two tables ahead of him, who had been fidgeting with his bag since the first droplets of rain. Usually, Walter enjoyed spending time at Kovelsky's Coffee Shop; it was the most decent place to get his, and occasionally the team's, morning caffeine that was a comfortable drive away from the garage. But right now he wasn't very comfortable with the thought of how much work awaited him at the garage when he couldn't exactly drive there through the rain in his god forsaken Volkswagen. So he'd been stationed here, sitting on a vinyl lounge chair with no more company than an empty coffee cup, a kid suffering from severe anxiety and the shop's staff.

Walter remembered feeling quite proud about discovering Kovelsky's almost four weeks ago on his way home from a job. Ever since their first coffee pot had died, the team had agreed to take turns on who was in charge of buying their daily coffee and Walter stumbling into Kovelsky's the day prior to his turn, had been of the likes of a miracle; if such thing existed, of course.

A week after this astounding discovery, he'd been a little too proud enough to let it slip the moment Toby started his daily rant about having to get his coffee elsewhere again due to their second coffee pot —a gift from a client— also dying under suspicious circumstances.

He rarely shared personal information with the behaviorist knowing it would ultimately lead to an over-analysis on the potential emotional background of his most trivial choices, but this coffee machine problem had consumed his already sparse patience and truth be told, he ─or the team as a whole, for that matter─ didn't function properly before drinking an early morning dose of caffeine. That and the funny name he’d asked the barista to write on Toby’s coffee cup, had been the ideal set of variables that resulted in Toby successfully getting in his toes that morning.

"I knew you were behind those ridiculous names on my coffee cups!" he said before taking a swig of his coffee "You tell that hot brunette barista that I'll be paying her a visit to get our order next time"

Walter choked on his drink. He grimaced, tongue burned.

An image of Kovelsky's barista, Paige, sprang in his mind flashing him a genuine smile as she handed him his order and change that same morning. Besides having Walter's lack of social skills as a disadvantage, he'd picked on the hint in Toby's snarky comment surprisingly fast. Walter made use of all his willpower to not blurt out more things that could potentially drag him even deeper into the hole, like the actual shade of brown of the hot brunette barista's hair, for starters.

"Just thought I needed an appropriate comeback for Emotional Dumpster Fire and Ego-maniac" he counterattacked, perhaps a little too late.

Walter cursed himself for hesitating on that last remark. Now, he was sure he had seen those nicknames in his coffee cups sometime in the past, but he didn't really know if either of them had been written on the ones Toby had ordered for him. So,as a result of him trying to cover up his slip, his brain had acted on his usual unfiltered auto-pilot.

Toby clicked his tongue, his lips curving into his trademark devilish grin. "You are such a terrible liar, mi amigo" he said, his fingers tapping on his cup excitedly "by the way I highly suspect of you deliberately messing up our new pot, but I'll let it go in the light of this new interesting chain of events"

Had he not being busy taking another glorious sip of his coffee, Walter might've even blushed at that last comment. He had indeed messed up said coffee machine, not intentionally at least and certainly not because keep going to Kovelsky's had been his plan all along (something he surprisingly didn't mind at all). In fact, and much to Walter's embarrassment, the sudden and disastrous malfunction of the machine had come off as a result of his first (and probably last) attempt at replicating Cinnamon dream, Paige's coffee recommendation of the week.

"T-that's not—"

"It was definitely a clever move to keep visiting our friend at Kovelsky's, actually" Toby said, cutting off his embarrassing stutter.

"What was a clever move to keep visiting our friend at Kovelsky's?" Sylvester, who apparently had been able to eavesdrop on Toby's last remark, asked as he joined them at the kitchen to get the lone apple that awaited him on the countertop "do we have a friend at Kovelsky's?"

"You all know, Kovelsky's?" Walter asked, his eyes shifting between both the mathematician and the behaviorist in bewilderment.

"That's the place where I get our coffee orders on Wednesdays, sometimes" Sylvester said as he proceeded to wash his apple in the sink behind Walter.

"You don't drink coffee" Walter added.

Sylvester hunched his shoulders. "You try telling Happy that"

"It's alright, pal" Toby added as he slid his free arm across Walter's shoulders "we've all had a crush on a coffee shop barista"

"What coffee shop barista?" Cabe asked. The homeland agent had arrived at just the perfect time to also eavesdrop on a conversation that should have never happened in the first place.

Walter visualized slapping himself hard in the face.

"The one this emotional dumpster fire is crushing on, of course" the behaviorist said, tightening his leverage on his shoulders.

"I don't have a crush on Paige" he snapped.

Oh boy.

While he listened to Toby and Cabe's frantic bursts of laughter, Walter finally said his goodbyes to a peaceful day at Scorpion's headquarters. There was no possible way that either of them would let go of that. Paige's name slipping from his lips had officially sealed his coffin.

"Did Paige put that cinnamon in your coffee as well?" Toby asked mockingly as he finally released Walter's shoulders and walked away in the direction of his desk.

Walter avoided visiting Kovelsky's for pretty much the entirety of the following week, something that did not go unnoticed by Toby, of course. He was fast to voice his utter disappointment regarding Walter's sudden interest in Yorkshire tea instead of his usual order from said coffee shop.

Still, he couldn't bring himself to buy a new coffee pot. Not out of sentimentalism, of course, but good old pride. Buying a new pot out of the blue would mean something for Toby, and he was definitely not backing up the shrink's theories on Walter's alleged emotions being awakened by the waitress.

A particularly loud thunder pulled Walter out of his reverie, his eyes falling to the empty cup atop the coffee table in front of him. The sight of his own name on it seemed foreign to him, as if he had somehow misspelled it his entire life. A ridiculous musing, if he actually put some thought to it, but the truth was that he found Paige's handwriting aesthetically beautiful, even when he had her write those absurd nicknames he'd come up for Toby.

Her little burst of laughter was worth the embarrassment, he thought.

Before this moment, Walter hadn't paid much attention to her handwriting, but he had indeed been observant of other things about her in the sporadic (but also uncomfortable) events in which they had interacted. And so he had come to associate the barista's light temper, energetic personality (surely a suitable behavior for someone who served at least a hundred customers per day) and overall appearance with a very neutral, pretty much basic handwriting style.

On the contrary, Paige had a very nice cursive handwriting with just the right amount of edges and curls to make it both elegant and practical enough to read effortlessly.

He’d been wrong all along, of course. But when had he ever been right about people? It wasn’t exactly his department.The genius was a lot of things but a Harvard trained psychologist, so how in the world, ─and taking in consideration his close to non-existent social skills─ would he be able to decode a woman if he hadn't even properly talked to her?

He had talked to her just once. A very short, very uncomfortable conversation with his usual unfiltered self and a poorly delivered diagnosis of anemia that went just about as good as anyone would expect. Of course, not even a clinically addicted gambler like Toby would bet on the odds of him getting the chance to engage into yet another disastrous conversation with her. Walter wouldn't have blamed him either.

Walter shook his head in annoyance. He was definitely not happy with the turn his thoughts were taking. Especially since he was still incapable of figuring out what was that he found so intriguing about this woman. Or why he felt compelled to make these ridiculous assumptions about her, like the way she wrote his name on a paper container. Besides, by being a regular customer for almost three weeks, Walter couldn't act like he actually knew this woman. He represented 15 minutes of a 24-hour day in her life, not even a 2 percent of it, if put in perspective.

Walter sighed and risked a quick glance in Paige's direction. She had abandoned her place behind the bar and was trying to offer some kind of pastry to the fidgety kid sitting two tables ahead of him.

He vaguely reminded him of a younger version of Sylvester, his feet tapping nervously on the floor as he examined a particular set of equations on the board of the garage. If the kid was anything like him, Walter doubted she'd make much progress in easing his anxiety.

But there she was, a couple of minutes later, gently ruffling up his hair as she handed him a freshly-baked chocolate muffin. “Thank you” the kid said a few moments later, both his hands too occupied picking on the pastry to continue their nervous tapping on the table.

The streets had been unsually packed the day of his return to Kovelsky’s a few days later resulting in Walter arriving much later than expected. There was a relatively short line of customers, —probably because six forty-five was not quite the busy hour for the coffee shop— which meant he could possibly shorten his visit and return to the garage to finish the tedious task of testing governmental software security for the hundredth time. With the deadline approaching at a seemingly faster pace, Walter and Sylvester's progress turned out slower than anticipated and the genius had been forced to rely on Toby and Happy's coding skills to get the last patches of the firewall revised. It would have been the only way they’d be able to deliver the results in time to a very irritable Deputy Director Cooper, who had not only called for updates once, but twice in a manner of twenty minutes.

As of now, the team had worked tirelessly throughout the entire night with pre-scheduled 10-minute lunch breaks to increase efficiency. But as the morning hours approached, Walter and Toby had surprisingly agreed that they could definitely use a large order of egg bagels and coffee to get through the last couple of hours before the deadline was officially up.

Walter was functioning on auto-pilot by now, which was why he initially took no notice of the familiar voice that greeted him as he approached the end of the line to order. He was already blurting out his usual coffee order before the previous client had successfully retrieved his own order from the barista’s hands.

"Good morning to you too, Walter" a familiar voice said back, laughing softly.

Walter could almost feel the color running up his face, because damn it he knew that voice too well. He scratched the back of his head nervously, his eyes rising from the brown tiles to the delicately written 'Paige' on the name tag of the woman in front of him.

"I-I’m sorry," he stuttered back, feeling utterly ridiculous "good morning, Paige"

Walter had only pronounced her name out loud a couple times before, and so it felt kind of awkward coming out of his mouth. When he finally got himself together to look up at her, she seemed like she was holding back a grin.

Paige settled for a wide smile and proceeded to tap the screen of the monitor in front of her. Walter was a bit surprised to find out she’d changed a little since the last time he saw her. Her hair was pulled up in a high pony tail and her bangs looked slightly longer, almost reaching her eyelids now. The early morning light brought out a nice sun-kissed tone on her skin and made her eyes shine a warm hazelnut color too. Sun bathing, maybe? And hadn't the bags under her eyes lessened a little bit? Moderate sun exposure increases levels of vitamin D and may help increase overall sleep quality…

She looked quite stunning, actually.

"…than usual, today"

Walter shook his head, eyebrows scrunched up together "I'm sorry, what?"

Paige flashed him another gentle smile rendering him slightly dazed "I said you look a little more tired than usual today. Walter, are you okay?"

Apparently he was also slower than usual because it took him a whole three-seconds' time to process that question "Yes, yes, I'm fine" he said, before he resumed to the suddenly difficult task of retrieving the right amount of money from his wallet.

She raised an eyebrow at him, seemingly dissatisfied with his rushed answer.

He frowned, evidently confused, as he quickly went over the whole exchange before it finally downed on him. "I'm fine, thank you" he added.

"You're getting so much better…I'm actually proud!" she admitted, handing him the printed receipt. "You know the drill: I'll call your name when the order is ready. It shouldn't take long"

Walter was about to deliver what was most likely a completely unnecessary scientific fact when his phone buzzed inside his pocket snapping him back to reality. The security software, he thought, alarmed, as he swiped left below Toby's caller ID to answer.

"I hope you're all done with the flirting and driving your ass back with our coffees right now" he said.

"Almost there" the genius replied, cursing out loud at the time on his wristwatch. "Has Cooper showed up yet?"

"No, but it shouldn't take her more than five minutes. I don't think that woman has ever been late to something, not even her birth"

Walter rolled his eyes and looked at his wristwatch once again. Even if he sped, he'd never make it to the garage in time if he waited for his order to be ready "See you there" he said, then hung up and put his phone back in his pocket.

"Is everything alright?" Paige asked from behind the bar, a couple feet apart from him.

"Actually…no" he replied, a silent apology drawn all over his face "I have to go"

Paige blinked, puzzled "What?"

"I'm sorry!" he shouted as he dashed through the doors and towards the parking lot.

"Walter, wait!" she shouted back, a cup holder in her hand

He was not able to see the noticeable disappointment in Paige's face.

Walter always thought he was one to get things done without complaint.

He could take on time-sensitive and dangerous missions every day, but it had always been the ensuing paperwork that got the best of him. He was vaguely aware of the few perks of working for the government, but having to write reports and fill out endless forms every time they worked on something was far away from being considered among them. Especially because no matter how many times he reviewed said reports, they always made sure to comment on virtually anything about them: the language used, the length, the blank space on the comments section…

Walter would've given anything to ditch that insufferable task and take a look at the equations Sylvester was working on the board or see what was going on with that faint smell of smoke coming from Happy's workplace… even take a look at the book Toby was reading at the living room with his feet over the coffee table. But he was well aware that the paperwork wouldn't do itself over the night and if he neglected to work on it for another day, he might as well never do it at all.

He sighed and frowned at the insurmountable pile of paperwork before his eyes wishing he'd have some sort of supernatural ability to make it disappear. At this point he thought anything would do, though he'd like to admit that laser-like vision was one of his favorites. Walter rolled his eyes at this ridiculous trail of thought. He had to be very desperate to bring up his sparse knowledge on sci-fi material to occupy his mind.

In fact, Walter was so engrossed in the many uses he could think of for laser-like vision that he missed the knock on the door. At first, it seemed like nobody else noticed, but Toby ended up being the one to answer it, not after shooting the rest of the team a skeptical look. Cabe had left thirty minutes before, so it was rather unlikely that it'd be him, at least not with L.A. traffic this late in the afternoon. Could be another lost delivery guy…

Except that it was neither Cabe nor the disoriented delivery guy from the recently open restaurant two blocks away.

"Hi—uh, I'm sorry," she stuttered "my name is—"

"Paige" Toby interrupted her, obviously amused. Walter's eyes widened. "What a pleasant surprise…"

"Yes, uh, how did you— "Nevermind. I'm looking for Walter O'Brien?" she added, doubtful.

Three pairs of eyes turned in his direction, Toby's exceedingly amused, of course, as of Happy and Sylvester's…well, they looked mostly confused, although he doubted the mechanic's grin and raised eyebrow could be classified under confused. Walter had never stood up so fast in his life.

Keep it casual, he reminded himself.

The behaviorist seemed like he was about to deliver what was most likely a very embarrassing remark, but luckily, Walter's own curiosity beat him to it. A bright smile appeared on Paige's face as soon as he caught sight of him by his desk and left him momentarily dumbfounded —for the second time in that day, he recalled.

"Paige?" he asked, evidently confused as he rounded his desk awkwardly "W-what are you doing here?"

Walter could almost feel everyone's eyes on him, even Toby's as he politely invited the barista in and rekindled his place at the couch. The genius would've swore he heard kissing sounds as he walked past him, but was happy to see Paige didn't seem to notice when he finally approached her.

She looked the same way she did in the morning, except she had replaced the dark blue apron and white t-shirt underneath, for a loose pink camisole and a denim jacket.

"I'm so glad I found you" she said, her hazelnut eyes were beaming with excitement "you're a very difficult man to find"

"I am?" Walter shook his head "How did you know where I—"

Paige held her finger up in the air as she started rummaging inside her handbag "Hold on”.

"You dropped your wallet at the coffee shop this morning" she said, finally fishing the item from her bag.

It was indeed his wallet what Paige was holding in front of him. It looked foreign in her hand though, had he not patted his back pocket, he would've probably contemplated she was mistaken just like the lost delivery guy. It had been more than twelve hours since he'd been at the coffee shop, how could he have possibly missed that?

"It is my wallet indeed" he said.

"I hope you don't mind me looking inside for some kind of information…" she trailed off "promise I didn't take anything"

"No, no, of course not" Walter added, "I-I would've never thought—"

Paige's eyes looked warm, she smiled at him shyly.

"Thank you" he said after a short pause, bowing his head a little bit.

"No problem" she said, hunching her shoulders "you still owe big time, though"

They stood there for about half a minute looking anywhere but each other, until Walter had the common sense to take the damned wallet from her hand and put it in the back pocket of his pants. What was so intriguing about the stray lock of hair that escaped her pony tail, anyway?

"Well...It was nice seeing you again" she said, offering him a smile before she turned on her heel and headed for the door.

Walter sort of…panicked. He stretched his arm, not quite sure about what he was actually doing, and was just in time to grab the strap of her handbag as she pulled the heavy door open. The cool autumn breeze did nothing to clarify his thoughts, but for once his familiar unfiltered self served him right by blurting out the words: "Is—uh, is there any way I could…repay you?

Paige stood there, halfway in halfway out, for a terrifyingly long second that got Walter thinking about all the ways he could apologize to her, before she finally turned on her heel and faced him again, a wide grin on her face.

She then proceded to fetch a pen from her bag and stuck it between her teeth as she said "You can always try" before grabbing his arm to scribble down a series of numbers on his skin.

Walter looked to his forearm, incredulous. Was that…?

"I like Italian food, by the way" the barista said as she exited the garage.

#stuffiwrite #cbs scorpion #walter o'brien #paige dineen #team scorpion #coffee shop au #waige #the early beginning of waige magic #fluff #i miss scorpion so much #walter's nerdy unfiltered self trying to decipher his crush on a certain coffee shop barista #scorpion reimagined by me lol #fanfiction #alternativeuniverse

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