Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Scorpion, Scorpion characters, and direct quotes from the series. All other original characters and plots are mine.

A/N: So, I fell down The Rabbit Hole three weeks ago after extensive writer's block. After binge-watching Scorpion not once, or twice but four times I relieved the awful finale and realized that fanfiction exists for this very reason. If you don't like an ending…. Change it. So, this is me trying to change it and adding a bit of my flare to it as well.

Enjoy!


Little Girl Lost

Chapter 1: Me, Myself and I

"Make as many great memories as you can, because at the end of the day we don't get to decide the ones we keep" – Bruce, from Season 1 Episode 15 Forget me Nots

Paige Dineen: leader and manager of genius run group Centipede, mother to a 12-year-old genius, ex-girlfriend to a genius, and now – as she sat in her desk chair and stared at the whiteboard – a successful normal thrust into the world of, you guessed it, geniuses.

It seemed in the last four years of her life she went from being a broke, humble waitress to a liaison to one of Homeland's most crucial and advanced contract Scorpion to now being a (revelatory successful) entrepreneur with bigger goals and dreams than she ever dared to hope about four years ago.

So why, in all her capacity to love and think and just… care did she feel so abnormally shitty?

She should be feeling elated, happy, and proud of the work her company was doing. She should be congratulating her co-workers on another job well done. She should be handling the press, smiling at the cameras, and giving her best impression of a PR veteran to boost good publicity for her young company. She should be feeling a lot more than she was at that moment.

All she felt, if she was being honest, was shame and pity. Not pity for herself, no that would mean that if she held any pity for her choices that she would have been in the right and that any pity directed at her would come from the ones who actually chose her. The ones who left with her. The ones who, for all their brainpower, decided that she was the most logical choice.

So no it wasn't pitying for her, but pity for her 12-year-old son, who at that very moment was sitting in the corner of her office staring at the clock as his eyes held the glazed-over expression that she hadn't seen in four years.

That she hadn't seen because, in those four years, he was able to communicate with him. He was able to connect with him. He was able to understand him and now – Paige was the one who ripped it away in her self-righteous act of protecting him.

In hindsight she was self-reflective enough to know that she didn't do what she did to protect her son, she did what she felt she had to do to protect herself. In response, she failed to protect her

most important thing. She bit her lip and sighed as Ralph slowly stood without a word, stared at her for a moment before his eyes drifted towards the men's room before he looked back, and without waiting for her to answer he shuffled his way there, the door closing with a low thump and the lock clicking into place much louder than intended.

She couldn't help but think that the locked door represented much more than just privacy.

Giving a loud sigh she let her head fall into her hands as she clenched her teeth and closed her eyes tightly, she wouldn't allow any more tears to fall. She cried too much already.

She survived for nine years by herself. She could do it again if she needed to. Besides, it wasn't like she would be by herself anyway. She had her team. She had part of her family. She had part of his family.

But part of a family doesn't complete a cyclone now does it?

No, it doesn't, she thought as she sank back into her office chair and stared blankly at the empty office chairs beside her. They never stayed late anymore. Yes, they still had the occasional team dinner but in the last 2 months, since everything went to hell, they were all still adjusting.

Happy and Toby were knee-deep in adoption paperwork, trying their best to navigate the minefield of red tape to even have a chance of adopting a child. Sylvester was content to read his comics in peace when they didn't have a case but being the most sensitive of the genius trio and his heightened EQ Paige knew he couldn't just sit and read peacefully. She knew just by the quick glances she would throw at him that he was hurting. A lot. Sly, in her opinion, may have been the one to lose the most that night.

He lost his brother, his best friend, his crush, father figure, and a stable, happy family all in the short span of 5 minutes, 21 seconds, and 96 milliseconds. At least according to Sly's calculations.

When they walked out of that garage, Paige held up a good front. She had always prided herself on her emotional control. She knew when to be emotional and when to be, well not emotional. That was one of the major reasons why she was so good at her previous job. However, she will admit that she held her ground as she strutted past Florence, prided herself that she never looked back, and was most proud of her emotional composure as she drove a sobbing Sly back to her place to ease the sudden and onslaught panic attack that happened once the reality caught up with all them. She took a deep breath and eyed the behaviorist and mechanic as they followed her out and their eyes convened once crucial thought as Walter's voice could be heard echoing behind them.

"Well, what the hell is gonna happen to us now!?"

Fitting the most logical, most important, and the hardest question came from the smartest one of the group. It was a most logical and important question. One that Paige didn't have an answer for. All she could do was hug Sly so he wouldn't fall apart and maybe, just maybe, that she wouldn't fall apart as well. So she closed her eyes and whispered that if they wanted to, anyone could come to her place for some coffee or a strong glass of whatever liquor suited them most. Ralph was at a friend's house for the night and she was confident that in a room with three geniuses and a street-smart liaison she could, in some fashion, find an answer to the hardest question.

So, without further ado, her once homy condo became an office for what, she couldn't know but what she did was that without scorpion they were out of jobs, out of money, and out of options. Happy, ever the most logical, stated that traditional jobs never worked for them. Their brains were just too fast for 'normal' jobs. That's what made scorpion such a good fit. They could take what jobs they could and considering the circumstances they could charge what they wanted. They could use their brains without filter and hindrance and now that didn't seem to be an option anymore. Sly panicked, Happy stated a very desolate "Not good" and Toby, she could tell was itchy to go gamble by his twitchy hands and his widened eyes toward the deck of cards Paige kept on her coffee table.

She had to think and fast. Here were the remains of a broken team and broken family.

She sighed as she leaned back into the couch and took several deep breaths trying to clear her head and think! What was what she used to say to Ralph when he would shut down? What was what she used to say to Walter? Take a deep breath….and reset.

Reset, exactly like a computer. She resisted the urge to laugh; in all the time she spent with Walter she was trying hard for him not to reset, not to revert back to the humanoid robotic lifestyle he led when they first met. Now, all she wished was for her brain to reset. For her to have the ability to reset her emotions and think like a machine because machines didn't care about emotions. Machines didn't care about any other factor other than what was needed to find a logical solution.

As she looked around her small living room at the down and dissolute faces of her friends, she wished she thought like a machine. This wouldn't have been the first time she wished she had a genius IQ. Opening her eyes the first thing she noticed other than Happy's deep frown was her fridge. Her kitchen was small and cramped, much like her condo. It was nice and suitable and exactly what she needed. However, it was the number that was stuck to the side that gave her an idea.

Richard Elia – tech mogul and one of the many repeated faces on Forbes's billionaire lists. He was also the former boss of one Paige Dineen. She remembered that conversation clearly as she packed up what was left of her cushy office and said goodbye to the many assistances that Richard gave her. She remembered as she smiled and shook his hand as he said that Walter was an amazing man but Miss Dineen had a knack for people and business. If she ever wanted to stray away or start up a company of her own either with or away from Walter to please, not hesitate to call him. In his own words "I don't want to miss the chance of another bright future. It takes someone special to communicate with geniuses and I for one would love to roll the dice on you, Paige Dineen."

She blinked as stood up and before she knew it she was talking so quickly that she was surprised she even made sense. A separate company away from Walter's. A new scorpion made up of them. A contract team that took jobs that only geniuses could solve. Happy raised her eyebrow as Toby and Sly shared a look.

"Yeah, but as much as we don't like Walt right now we don't want to destroy his company. That ain't right Paige." She muttered as she shook her head.

No, they wouldn't take the homeland cases or the life-threatening cases if they didn't have to. They could work with Richard Elia, keyword of 'with'. She was certain that with one call he would want to invest and as she eyed the case file on her kitchen table she smiled and said that if they could conquer that hurdle she was positive she already had a case. She explained that three days ago she was contacted by a security detail to revamp and modernize their infrastructure to be a smart hub. She was supposed to give it to Walter, but she never got around to it. Maybe it was best that she didn't. That could be their first case. They could build something – away from Walter, away from that woman, away from everyone. They could start something new.

From there, ideas started flowing and before long Paige had a business plan and proposal. The next morning, she received a very exciting call from Elia himself and a key to the top floor of one of the office buildings he owned. With a smile, Paige took down the tarp to the glass door and centipede was born.

Their first case was, indeed, the tech start-up for security, and then they found out they landed the Boisean job thanks to a recommendation from Elia. Something that Paige felt a bit bad about since Scorpion wanted that job but considering they landed a homeland case contract for a scheduled satellite upgrade in that month that was a very lucrative cash bonus she didn't feel that bad. It was a shock however when she saw Cabe, Walter, and that woman at the Gettleman pitch. Although she knew she would see them it still hurt like hell to be in the same room.

Perhaps she went a little overboard with the matching shirts but hearing Sly's human centipede comment it seemed the discomfort went for all of them. When Walter called her name as she entered the room she wanted so badly to turn around.

But she didn't.

And now here she was, in her office, her team gone for the evening – her son back to the quiet and reserved state from 4 years ago and alone in her office. She wiped away a lone tear as she sniffled and turned on the news, anything to distract her from the memories that came rushing back to her.

"Latest story today that Scorpion headed by Water O' Brian saved 10 people today from the bush fires in Southern California after a helicopter crash due to engine failure. Mr. O' Brian comments that this is what Scorpion is for. Saving lives and serving the greater good. In our latest update to the La plaga drug runners – " Paige switched off the tv as she sighed and bit her lip.

Mr. O' Brian comments, she smiled as she stifled a bitter laugh. He was never one to comment publicly and seeing the images of the fires and no doubt the blurry image of a man running into the fires only to emerge with two people just to go to that woman after. It was too much.

Rationally Paige knew that there was nothing romantic from those 2 seconds she saw. Logically she knew that when Walter emerged with those two people, they needed medicine that a world-renowned chemist must have known how to make in that short amount of time.

However, logic and reason were not one of Paige's strong suits when it came to the subject of 197 and the chemist. I guess that's what made her human. Straightening her shoulders she sighed off on the rest of her case files and tinkered on her desk waiting for her son. In her head she knew that this was the best move she could have made under the circumstances, this was the best outcome that could have happened. There was a goal, a job to do – a direction.

So why did she feel so lost?

A/N: Please tell me what you think about this first chapter! I might leave it as a one-shot or continue it later since I have an outline planned out and written but mostly this is just what I had hoped to see after the dumper fire that was the finale with a few twists thrown in there. Don't forget to review!