25So long time, no update on this. I appreciate your patience – and I even appreciate some of your impatience since I get it, I basically went AWOL on this fic. Combination of factors, one, had some computer issues, two, my need to be in a very precise mood to write smut and I am so rarely in that mood.
Mainly computer issues and fatigue though. Funny story. Recently my computer conked out, managed to save most of my stuff, then it just died completely. I realized I had 3500 words of this last chapter on it (chapter worked out to about 4800) and I was never going to get this published if I had to write all over again. Now, I also name these files and folders whatever the hell I want since no one sees my computer but me. Which is fine, except when I need file recovery.
So I deadass walked up to someone I was hiring to pull shit off my laptop and said the sentence "there's a file named 'Porno' that I really need you to save."
WHOOPS. Anyway, here it is, "Wreck Less" aka "Porno" in all its glory. May be the last smut from me, may not be (I have a fade to black scene from GDT that I may flesh out in a separate oneshot, but we'll see).
Ralph.
She hadn't meant to bring him into this. She'd been planning to just meet up, get off a couple times like usual, and go home. But in the minutes between her arrival at the hotel and Walter's, she'd had too many seconds to think. To fixate. And so the tears had come. And she hadn't been able to overcome them before her ex had shown up, the ex who was so horrible at reading complex emotions but knew the classic signs of sadness all too well.
So she'd spilled. How she'd asked Ralph to help on a Centipede case. How she, admittedly, had gotten snippy with him when he'd said no thanks, reminding him that he needed to not take a teenaged attitude with her and assist as he had always done.
That, of course, had lead to the reminders, shouted at her and accompanied by a pointed finger, that things were not in fact the same as they'd been when he'd so willingly thrown himself into their jobs.
She left out the part that hurt the most. The part where her son had looked at her, angry and wary at the same time, and said, "you told Walter he was a child who would never change. Who didn't deserve love. Walter and I are so similar. Don't pretend that if you really feel that way about Walter, you also feel that way about me."
You're paraphrasing, she'd shot back. I didn't say it like that.
"I don't care exactly how you said it."
Walter had asked her what she wanted from him. She wanted to snap at him for that. She didn't. She knew that was his way of offering help. She wanted several things from him. Continuing this conversation, letting him be the shoulder to cry on, that was too dangerous. So was letting Ralph see him, although she did long to see them together again, if only for her son's sake.
The other thing she wanted from him, well, it was what she'd been coming to him for for months.
Of course, despite them having previously agreed on boundaries, and despite avoiding breaking some of them by cutting their emotional talk about Ralph short, they still were crossing one line tonight that they'd hadn't since this whole affair started.
"Make me forget about this for a while," was how she'd responded to him asking how he could help.
The next thing he said was, "is this okay?"
So now his head was between her legs, his hands holding her hips in place, her underwear at her ankles and her skirt flipped up over her belly, while she stared up at the ceiling and panted heavily. She hadn't forgotten how good he was at this, but she'd refused to think about it. This was, to her, more intimate than the other things they'd been doing. Walter was only the second person she'd ever allowed to do this. And she knew she was the only one Walter had ever done this with – giving or receiving.
That made doing this so much worse. It was a direct reminder of their relationship, when he'd do this, then crawl up her body and kiss her, whispering he loved her, making sure to do so before any gratification of his own. She'd always felt so, so loved in those moments.
She whimpered, partly due to what he was doing, partly due to the memory, entirely involuntarily. Her hands came up, curling around the pillowcase. "Shit."
"Close?" He mumbled.
"Uh – huh," she moaned, reaching up with one hand to try and grab the headboard. It was attached to the wall. She returned the hand to the pillow, closing her eyes, wishing she'd taken off her top because of how hard she knew she was sweating. It would be harder to hide this walk of shame.
Walter hummed against her, adjusting his grip on her hips, his tongue moving like mad, and Paige gave a sharp cry as she went over the edge, the intensity making her shake. He kept his mouth on her, drawing it out without over stimulating, and lifted his head as she came out of it, wiping his mouth and coming up to lay next to her. There was no kissing his way up her body this time. No kiss on the mouth and whispered words. They still had some boundaries. She pulled her underwear back up around her hips, letting her skirt back down.
He gently rubbed her stomach. She'd told him a long time ago that she sometimes cramped after a powerful climax, and while he had to know that he wasn't actually alleviating anything, the gesture was one of comfort that Paige had come to rely on.
Maybe it was too much. Maybe she should stop him.
She thought she should. But she couldn't bring herself to do it.
"Thank you," she said. "I needed that."
"Of course," he said.
She kept staring at the ceiling, focusing on catching her breath. She drew her knees up, tucking her toes under the rumpled covers and extending her legs back out, needing to warm up her extremities. Walter kept rubbing her stomach, almost aimlessly. The minutes ticked by, neither of them saying a word.
When she felt more or less recovered, she rolled onto her side to face him. "This arrangement we have," she said, "it's a mutually beneficial one. I guess that means it's your turn." She reached out, sliding her hand over the zipper on his pants, and smiled, lifting her eyebrows flirtatiously.
Walter closed his hand around her wrist. "Paige. You were upset."
"And you took care of me. Now it's your turn to get taken care of."
"Paige, it's fine."
"You always preferred being inside me anyway," she said. "Oh! That's it, I see."
He frowned. "What's it?"
"You decline a blow job because you prefer to be inside me, thinking I'll offer that instead."
Walter sat up, shifting his weight. He was annoyed, preparing to get up. "That's not at all what's – "
"Well fortunately for you," she said, cutting him off as she scooted out from under the covers, "that's what I have in mind, too."
She straddled him, both hands unbuttoning and unzipping his pants and tugging them off his hips when he shifted again to help her out. She scooted up his thighs, kissing him hard on the mouth and slowly grinding down on him. His body, already somewhat wound from going down on her, responded readily to the stimulation, and they groaned quietly against each other's lips. Paige unbuttoned her shirt, finally freeing herself of the hot material, and reached behind her back to unclip her bra as her hips continued to roll over the bulge in his underwear.
"Damn, Paige," Walter said, looking at her exposed breasts in a way startlingly similar to how he had the first time he'd seen them. Well, second time. He'd been very careful to ignore them at the nudist spring. He slid his arms around her, hands on her back, and lowered his mouth to one of her nipples, making her sigh and press her hips down harder in search of more stimulation. She still wasn't quite ready for anything direct, but the two layers of clothing between their bodies provided just enough protection.
Walter, however, wasn't recovering, and she enjoyed the small sounds escaping him as she kept moving against him, flexing his hips upward to press more firmly against her. She put a hand on his chest, pushing him back, her other hand covering the breast his mouth had just left from the chill of the air on it. His shoulders on the pillows, Paige undid the middle buttons on his shirt, sliding a hand inside to rub his chest. He groaned when her thumb brushed over his nipple. She repeated that to hear him groan again. She giggled. This was fun. She could do this all day. But she wouldn't.
"Okay." She rose up, climbing off of him, digging through her purse for the condom. He shed the rest of his clothing, and Paige rid herself of hers. He took the condom from her and, when it was in place, pushed her down against the mattress, his body trembling with anticipation.
She put a hand on his abdomen. "Slow, remember," she said. She tightened up temporarily after an intense orgasm, and if he entered her with unrestrained enthusiasm, it would hurt.
Walter nodded. "I know." He reached down between them, positioning himself, and pushed inside her carefully, letting out a shaky breath as he did so. When his hips met hers, he studied her face carefully. "Okay?"
"Mmm hmmm."
He began to move, slowly, setting a pace that would have been agonizingly slow for her if she wasn't still adjusting. As is, it was perfect. She put her hands on his upper arms, closing her eyes, rolling her hips along with his and nodding when, after a few minutes, he asked if she was recovered.
It felt good, and she normally could get off a second time faster and easier than the first time, but she could already tell it wasn't going to happen this time. No matter. She could still give Walter what he'd come for. She shifted her position, pulling his upper body down to kiss his lips, his chin, his neck, rolling one of his nipples between her fingers, and he responded, thrusting faster, one of his hands tucked under her head.
He groaned again when he finished, then panted against her neck, careful not to lay all his weight on her. Paige wrapped her hand around the back of his neck, holding him there, wanting to keep him inside her for just a moment or two longer.
Once in a while, they risked Paige coming to the garage. It was easy on nights Florence went somewhere – no one to see her car. Cabe always gave Walter a heads up if he was going to come over or stay late; he knew Walter got invested in his projects and got upset when disturbed.
Florence mentioned to Walter she had a meeting at the university. She wouldn't be back until, probably, 10pm. "If a case pops up, my phone will be off."
"Okay," he said, already thinking about texting Paige. Their 'no garage and no home' rule had already been broken in the past weeks. It wouldn't hurt to break it again.
She arrived with a smile, throwing her jacket over a hook and kicking off her heels at the door. "Come from work?" He asked.
"Yep," she said. "We're super busy."
"Good. Us, too."
"Good."
Walter met her halfway across the room and put his mouth on hers, his hands resting on her hips. She kissed him back, moaning quietly and putting her hands on the side of his face. He debated asking her to put the heels back on.
His phone started going off, and he was planning to ignore it, but then Paige's ringtone joined the chorus. They pulled back, looking at each other with some confusion, as if the other would explain why their phones were going off at the same time.
Walter looked at his screen. It was Florence. He glanced up at Paige. She'd taken her call and headed toward the door.
He answered. "I thought your phone was off."
"What, you have a lady over?"
He deserved a snarky remark, but Walter jumped toward the nearest window, suddenly sure that she knew. She knew and she would tell the others. "Where are you?"
"At…the university. Are you okay?"
"Yes. Yes. Fine. Uh…what can I do for you?"
"There's a professor here that might have a job for us. A Larry Specking. Wanted to okay getting the info and presenting it in the morning before I waste his time."
"Specking."
"You know him?"
"No, I actually don't, and that's good. Go ahead and talk to him."
"Great. Talk to you tomorrow."
"Sounds good, bye."
Walter shoved his phone back in his pocket, then stepped back toward the table they had set up where the old team members' desks used to be. He sank down on a bench, waiting for Paige.
It took a few minutes before she came back over. "Sorry. Work. Yours okay?"
"Yes. Also work. Florence might have a job for us."
"Nice."
"Nice."
Paige looked rattled. Walter cocked his head. "Are you okay?"
"No." She sank down across from him. "It's been a long day. A long day. And no one is happy. It's like I'm waitressing all over again."
"I understand that."
"Toby is angry with Happy about something. Sylvester's angry…he's just been angry lately. I worry about him. And then all our clients are mad about something…" Paige put her forehead down on the table. "I can't hold all of this together."
"I just want people to be happy," Walter said. "I feel sometimes like the weight of the world is on us – our teams, I mean – and yet how can we save them when we can't even make ourselves better?"
"Maybe we just aren't meant to," Paige said. "I would hate it, trust me," she added when Walter looked at her in alarm. "I just wonder if it's possible."
"I don't believe in meant to be," Walter said. "Not in that sense. I don't believe anyone is destined to be unhappy."
"I don't believe it either," she said, "though maybe it's just because I'm so desperate not to."
"You know…" he hesitated. He bit his lip, stared down at his hands on the table. Then he lifted his face, eyes back on Paige, who was looking at him, waiting for him to complete the sentence. "You know that even if Florence were to come in here right now, drop on her knee and propose, or try to pin me down on this table and have her way with me…you know I wouldn't, right?"
"We're not together, Walter. You can do whatever you want."
"That's exactly my point," he said. "I know we're not together. And I still want nothing to do with her. At least, not like that. It doesn't matter if I'm single or not. I don't have those feelings for her. She knows that. I've been single for months and she hasn't tried."
"She had no problem confessing in front of us all," Paige said.
Walter just looked at her.
Paige sighed. "I suppose she looked conflicted."
"She's hated everything that's happened as much as we have."
"You seem to know a lot about what she's thinking."
"Well, we are on the same team. She's my friend, Paige. I care about her, just like I care about Toby, Happy, Sly. Should I have been jealous at your friendships with them?"
"We did."
"I hate Centipede," she said suddenly. "I hate it. I hate the name. I hate constantly scrambling because we don't have the manpower. I hate being exhausted and being away from Ralph so much more than before because I have to somehow be me, Cabe, and even you all at once. I have to convince potential clients why you aren't involved, because your name was so heavily attached to Scorpion. I have to come up with explanations for the split and why we are better without the three of you, and those reasons have to sound professional and make us sound like an upgrade. I'm sure you guys have dealt with some of the same."
"To an extent." At least Scorpion 2.0 had the benefit of still having the recognizable name. "We were a fine-tuned machine. Even when we were tense with each other, we still worked as a unit."
"That we did." He looked back down at his hands.
"They say sometimes a thing can be greater than the sum of its parts," Paige said.
Walter nodded. "I…don't know if this is what you were leading toward, but…if you or any of them wanted to…work here…again…"
"I don't know."
"Okay."
"That isn't a no," she said. "I just don't know."
"That's okay. But I do think we could all…we could make it work again."
"I think we could. I hated things about Scorpion sometimes. I hated specific missions. I hated specific days. But…I hate Centipede. I never hated Scorpion."
"Do you want to, like…think of some terms?" Walter reached for his laptop. "Like, work out pros and cons of merging, what we think everyone would want to get out of it, move forward as a business arrangement?"
"Lines will blur, eventually," Paige said. "Family can't go to being business."
"But it's a starting point."
"And they'd all be more likely to agree if they see we've thought this through."
"Exactly."
Paige moved around the table to sit next to him. He opened the laptop.
It wasn't until hours after she left that either of them realized they hadn't had sex.
It was probably weird that harmony turned Paige on. But it was day two of the merge, and things were better. Things were good, even.
Of course, they weren't exactly the same. People were businesslike, for the most part. Cabe couldn't resist sending a couple zingers Toby's way, and Toby couldn't resist wise cracking Walter's formality. They only worked for a few hours, mostly on planning ways to move forward, how to handle the non-time sensitive cases that they both had, how to handle pay and talking to current clients. But it was nice. It felt right. Sylvester even smiled.
It was day two of this, and day two of them winding up in the loft afterward with Walter's fingers inside Paige, her hand wrapped around him, both working furiously to make the other finish first. She'd lost yesterday. He was looking forward to making her lose again today.
Paige had her eyes closed, her head tipped back, and she scooted closer to him to adjust her own hand. Walter counted quietly in his head. She was every bit as skilled with her hands as he was, but all her little edging games had given him stamina – and the advantage.
"Fuck it," Paige said, "I want you inside me."
"You're just saying that because you're losing."
"Do you not want to be inside me?"
"Yes, please." Walter rolled on his side, fumbling for the drawer.
"That's right," she said with a smirk, straddling him down by his knees and waiting for him to roll the condom down before scooting upward. She lowered herself carefully, and put her hands on his chest as she began to ride him.
He put his hands around her wrists, groaning quietly. "You feel incredible."
She didn't answer, her face was flushed and she was breathing hard, but he saw her smile. She closed her eyes again. He wanted to do the same, but he could rarely look away from her when she was on top of him. She was beautiful. He wanted to tell her. But that might not be appropriate.
He slid his hands up to her hips. "God," he breathed. She moved effortlessly on him, rhythmically, with a fluidity that was beautiful to watch. He could feel himself getting closer, and he could tell by her sounds that she was too. He hoped she would finish first. They weren't playing the game anymore, but he still wanted to win.
"You close?" He asked her.
"Yes," she gasped.
He was, too, and when Paige tensed and moaned, fingers digging into him, he tipped over the edge too, gripping her hips tightly to keep her from moving off of him. They hadn't finished so close together lately, and he forgot how good it felt to be able to feel her pulsing around him as he came. "Shit," he gasped. "Shit."
Paige leaned forward, her forehead nearly touching his chin, gasping for air. Then she sat up, moved off of him, and dropped down on her side. "Whew," she said with a grin.
He turned toward her, grinning back. He raised his hand.
"A high five?" Paige asked, cocking her head.
He lowered it. "I don't know, it seemed to fit the moment."
She gave a nod. "I feel." She raised her hand. He grinned, smacking it with his own.
She stretched out, groaning quietly. "Ugh, I hate to hit it and run, but…"
"Ralph," Walter said. "Go."
She grinned, leaned over to kiss his cheek, and rolled out of bed to find her clothes. She turned before reaching the stairs. "Walt?"
"Huh?"
"I'm so glad we're doing this. The team."
He nodded. "Me too."
They fell into a new pattern, twice at the hotel, once at the garage. They had to keep some level of ground rules in place, they'd decided, just like they had laid out with the team merge. There wasn't a typed out document, no chalk board diagrams. But now that they were working in such close proximity again, they had to have boundaries.
Hotel, hotel, garage. They all traveled together to Puerto Rico. Hotel, they saved some boaters, hotel, they blew up a meteor, garage. Hotel, hotel, they went to Sri Lanka, garage. Hotel.
Happy and Florence were still wary around each other. But Florence and Sylvester were talking again. Sylvester had approached Walter just two days before. The encounter had ended with a hug. They were working on things. They were moving forward together; the only way any of them knew how.
Walter arrived first for his and Paige's next hotel rendezvous. It was early morning, but the hotel was at less than fifty percent capacity, and they didn't mind him checking in at that time. He paid, left her a key, and went up to the room. He studied his reflection in the full length mirror on the bathroom door. He double checked that he'd brought condoms. He'd brought multiple. He was optimistic. Chances were about fifty – fifty anyway.
She knocked. That was odd, Walter thought, as she had a key. But instead of calling out for her to just come in, he turned and opened the door, giving her a smile. "Hey."
"I'm late," she said.
"Maybe by a minute or two," Walter said, "but I think I can look past it if you're still planning on doing what we talked about last time."
"No, Walter, I mean like late late."
"…oh." Oh.
Oh.
After their scare a few months ago, they'd been so careful. He tried to always be prepared for any situation. But he hadn't expected this to be a situation. He stepped aside, suddenly realizing she was still in the hallway. She walked inside. "I'm…assuming you haven't taken a test yet."
"I have one with me. But I don't know if I want to take it."
"Okay." He frowned. He didn't know what she wanted from him. "I mean, I can't…take it for you."
She let out a rushed sigh. "I know that."
"You said you didn't know if you want to take it. What do you want to do if you aren't taking it?" He wanted – really, really wanted – to point out to her that not taking the test wouldn't change the outcome, but he sensed that was the wrong thing to say.
"I just…I can't be alone when I take it."
"Okay."
"Because I can't come to you with a positive test. I just…" she sighed. "I know I could take it and if it was negative just pretend it didn't happen but if it was positive then I'd have to tell you that way and I can't do that and…"
He stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder. "Paige."
"Sorry. I'm blabbing." She pushed on the bathroom door. "Just…I'm not peeing in front of you. Give me a minute."
He waited outside the door. After a minute or two, she called to him. He entered the bathroom. She was sitting on the toilet, the test resting on her lap. Her knees were bouncing. He sat on the edge of the bathtub, his mind racing. Should he take her hand? Should he take the test from her so it wouldn't fall off of her jittery legs? He opted to rest a hand on her knee.
"I'm sorry. I'm so anxious."
"I know."
Her teeth were clattering. She closed her mouth. It didn't stop the sound.
"Just breathe," he said. "Time is an illusion. It will pass us by before we know it."
"Stop," she said, and he thought he heard her voice crack. "That isn't helping."
"What would help?"
"I just want the time to be up," she said.
"I know." He wanted her to stop shaking. If he didn't know any better, he'd think she was cold.
"I can't…" she bit her lip. She closed her eyes. He wished he could make whatever unpleasantness was swarming inside her go away. "This can't be positive."
"It probably won't be," he said. "We were very careful."
"I know."
They sat in silence until her phone chimed. Paige got off the toilet and sat down next to Walter before flipping the test over. She exhaled.
Walter spoke the result aloud. "Not pregnant."
"Thank God." Paige put her face in her hands. "Thank God."
Walter rubbed her back instinctively, surprised when he realized she was crying. "Paige?" She got up, walking to the sink, placing her hand on either side of the basin and tucking her chin to her chest. "Paige, what's wrong?"
She began to full on sob, her body shaking again; he could see her face contorting in the mirror. He put his hands on her waist, not sure where was appropriate to touch, but wanting to comfort her. "Paige, it's okay, it's negative. Isn't that what you wanted?"
"Yes." She used her arm to wipe under her nose. "Yes, it's what I wanted." She turned to face him. "Because if it was positive, you'd never believe me."
"Believe…that it was positive?"
"No." She drew in a long breath, wiping her eyes. "If it was positive, I couldn't tell you how much I still feel for you, because you'd think I was only saying it because I was scared that you wouldn't be in the kid's life."
Walter's brain had to take some time to piece her sentence together. He was still analyzing it when she spoke again.
"I can't say I'm still in love with you because I do think I stopped at one point. But I love you again. All over again. And I wanted to tell you, and then I was late, and I thought oh god, if this test…if it's positive..." she put her hands over her face. "If it's positive, my life will be over. Because he will think I'm trying to manipulate him."
Walter absolutely hated that her hypothetical scenario would probably have gone exactly the way she thought.
"And I wouldn't have blamed you," she said. She wiped her eyes again. "And I still don't think I'm entitled to you loving me back. But…but I wanted to be able to tell you with no hidden motives. So…so there it is." She grabbed the test and showed it to him again. "I'm not pregnant, Walt. And I love you."
He felt like his heart was going to pound its way right out of his chest. "You love me. Does this mean you want to, like…"
"Yeah. I want all of it. But if you don't, I mean, I get it. But God it feels good to just…get that off my chest."
She was scared. Walter could see it. It wasn't the same fear she'd had when they were waiting on the result, but it was just as present. It was vulnerability. It was the fear one felt when they were on the verge of potentially hearing there was no hope.
"Come here," he said in a low voice, putting his hands on the sides of her face. "Remember when I first told you I loved you? When I poured out my heart, not knowing what you'd say back? Do you remember what you said?"
"I'm in love with you, too."
He nodded. "Exactly. I love you too, Paige. All over again."
"Thank God," she said with a laugh, and he chuckled in response as he leaned in and kissed her. "So," she said when they broke apart. She gestured with her head toward the main part of the hotel room. "You wanna…"
"Actually," Walter said, taking both of her hands. "Why don't we go do something we haven't been doing the past five months?"
She cocked her head. "Like what?"
"There's that breakfast place you love just two blocks away." He saw the smile coming over her face and knew he was saying the exact right thing. "We've been staying in a lot lately. Let's go out."
THE END
