Dating Disaster Chapter 8

Author's note:

First I would like to thank everyone for sticking with this story until it's final chapter - which is the one you are about to read right now.

Thank you for all the reviews - I already have the next one in the pipeline - As my main work load in real live is in the first week of the month, I hope I'll be able to post the first chapter in the second week of December.

Second, but still important, our friend Grykon asked me to pass on a message from you: A few of his readers have been asking if he was okay, but as you are not having accounts, he was unable to respond to you - he would like me to pass on the message that he is doing okay.

So without much further blabbering from me - enjoy the final chapter of Dating Disaster

Chapter 8

Three hours later, Cabe strolled back into the garage, a relaxed smile on his face.

Despite not knowing why Cabe had been summoned back to Homeland, the geniuses and Paige had started their victory celebration without him.

Two bags sporting Kowelsky's logo sat on the table and everyone was busy devouring their respective choices.

Paige and Walter were seated together on the couch, Paige almost in Walter's lap, as she stabbed a piece of chicken from her salad onto her fork.

Cabe could smell Walter's fermented fish from the door and wrinkled his nose in disgust. That was one smell hard to get used to. It baffled him how Paige could sit so close to that smell without gagging.

Toby and Happy were both holding cheese burger's in their hands and each balanced a small carton of fries on their respective laps. Toby had learned the hard way just how ill-advised it was to try and steal his wife's fries.

Ralph sat his own burger down as Cabe stepped up to them. The teenager produced another tightly wrapped burger from the bag and tossed it at Cabe.

A pleased grin appeared on Cabe's face as he caught the burger and the smell of the burger chased away the lingering smell of fermented fish, at least for the moment.

"Kovelsky's special burger, double beef and extra jalape?os!" Ralph informed him.

Cabe nodded appreciatively at the choice as he sat down next to Sylvester who had a rice dish in his hands.

Just as Cabe unwrapped his burger, the door to the garage opened and Florence awkwardly moved inside but stayed by the door as if she wanted to be able to quickly dive outside again.

Cabe's threw a quick glance in Paige's direction and just as he expected, Paige tensed up as her eyes fixed on Florence.

Florence gulped, aware of the glare aimed her way. She nervously shifted, simultaneously trying to avoid looking Paige in the eyes and keeping her in her sight for her own safety.

"I… uh… Good Evening!" Florence said, her voice uncertain as every set of eyes in the garage landed on her. "I heard you through the vents and… I wondered if I could talk to Sylvester for a moment?"

The question came out rushed as she mustered up all her courage. She felt uncomfortable under the undivided attention of the group. The last time she had been in the garage with them, words from her mouth had initiated the blowup of the team.

She knew that wasn't all that had led up to it, but it had felt like it to her when it happened.

Her words had made an already tense situation even worse and things had escalated from there. Still she couldn't help but wonder if their problems couldn't have been resolved calmly if she had not opened her mouth the night.

Sylvester looked at her with wide eyes for a second, then hurried to put down his food and stood up, almost tripping as Toby took his time pulling his legs out of Sylvester's path.

The assembled team watched Sylvester walk towards the blonde chemist, then lead her to the door. Once the pair was outside, their attention turned to Cabe.

No one dared to mention the blonde chemist that had just stolen their human calculator. They had all noticed how Paige had tensed up and glared at her the moment she set foot into the garage. The former waitress had gone through enough since the previous night, none of them wanted to upset her without necessity.

Toby would have loved to make a comment, but the only one who would not kick his butt for it had just vacated the garage together with Florence.

Also curiosity was killing him when it came to Cabe and Homeland. Of course he had taken notice of Cabe's body language as he entered the garage and he wanted to know if his theory was correct.

"So, what did Homeland summon you for?" Toby voiced the question burning on their minds. "It can't be anything bad, you are too relaxed for that. In fact I think you have very good news to share."

Cabe nodded, a smile forming on his lips.

"That colour shock of a lady you talked to earlier, really left quite the gift. She's a sneaky one. Apparently Mark Collins had footage from your security cameras on his computer and in order to provide evidence to Homeland that she had managed to locate the scumbag, she sent a few selected files to Carlson. One of them the footage of the day when he forced us into that baseball game. Too bad for Carlson, she also sent copies to his superiors."

The others looked at him with wide eyes. Toby chuckled with glee as he concluded what Cabe would tell them next.

"I take it, Carlson's superiors where not amused?" Happy asked.

"That's putting it mildly." Cabe's smile turned into a smug grin.

"Ms. Garcia already sent that file a few days ago and there have already been some hearings. Everything was hush hush considering Carlson's position. To cut things short, all Agents were called in tonight to introduce our new director."

"That's good for us, isn't it?" Paige asked hopefully.

"Remember when we caught that bio-hacker who tried to kill Governor Lane?" Cabe asked.

"Of course, it was one of our first Homeland cases." Walter replied immediately.

"Newly appointed Director Margaret Rhodes is his sister-in-law." Cabe informed them, "She is very interested in continuing Scorpion's contract and she made it clear that she would prefer the original Scorpion and not Scorpion 2.0."

He paused, giving them a stern look.

"She wants an answer by Monday morning." He added before he turned his attention back to his burger.

xxxXXXxxx

After dinner, Happy and Toby had been the first to leave, shortly followed by Cabe, who had offered Sylvester a ride home.

"Alright, it's late and time we head home!" Paige sighed, disentangling herself from Walter with a regretful look. "Ralph, grab your stuff." She stood, then turned to Walter, who sat in his spot, a disappointed look on his face.

"Do I have to order you around like a child, or will you grab your stuff on your own?" She asked with a mischievous smile.

Walter's face lit up at the prospect of going home with Paige.

"Uh… Mom, I thought we could stay the night here?" Ralph piped up. "I haven't been in the garage for weeks and I hoped Walter and I could use the weekend to work on a new project idea I had."

"Ralph, I don't have a change of clothes and…"

"I got you covered, Mom." Ralph leaned back, a smug look on his face. "I've brought an overnight back for you and one for me, including some heavy duty ear plugs, though I will only use them under the condition that you will NOT tell me if their use was warranted or not."

"So, my genius son has already planned this out in advance and taken precautions?" Paige crossed her arms in front of her chest as if to confront her son, but her lips were twitching upwards in a fond smile. "Well, we can stay here in the garage tonight, but I do have a few conditions of my own."

xxxXXXxxx

"That was one of my best ideas." Paige smiled happily as she leaned back against the cushion behind her back while Walter sat the tray with their breakfast aside.

She had to admit, she had not expected Ralph to put together such a good breakfast. She had the sneaking suspicion he had had help, as she could not imagine Walter's kitchen being well enough stocked for such a generous meal.

But considering the circumstances, Paige had decided to live in blissful ignorance. He had probably roped in the others and had one of them drop off the ingredients he had needed.

All that mattered to Paige was that Ralph had treated them to the breakfast in bed she had requested the previous evening and Walter had refrained from making his opinion about eating in bed known - though she was sure once they had sat snuggled up with each other in front of the food this morning, Walter had changed his mind about the topic.

Walter's agreeable hum pulled her out of her thoughts.

"I could stay like this forever, but I assume they are already assembled down there." Paige sighed. "Ralph will be disappointed he didn't get in some project time with you before our meeting."

"There'll be plenty of time after the meeting." Walter leaned in to steal a kiss from Paige's lips, caustic her to smile. "I share your sentiment. While we can't stay like this forever, I would not mind drawing out getting up for a few more minutes. I am sure Ralph will still be satisfied with the overall outcome."

Paige snorted. "That little sneak. He figured out we'd get back together the second he received your text."

"He is a genius…" Walter shrugged and Paige playfully slapped his shoulder.

"Thank you Captain Obvious! I wouldn't have noticed!"

xxxXXXxxx

Cabe arrived at the garage a little later than he had aimed for and couldn't hold back the happy smile that formed on his lips at the familiar and yet so long missed sight in front of him.

Toby was standing behind his desk, putting books into the his shelf, while Happy was already punishing an innocent piece of metal with her hammer.

Sylvester meticulously placed his office supplies on his desk.

Cabe noticed a rather large nondescript bottle with a blue bow around it's neck. Making an educated guess, Cabe was sure it was a bottle of privately produced hand sanitiser, courtesy of one neighbouring chemist.

When Sylvester had returned from his conversation with Florence the previous night, he had been giddy and wearing a wide grin.

Toby had tried to get anything out of him, but Sylvester had refused to disclose any details, but it was obvious that the conversation had been a good one.

The welcome home gift Florence had left for the human calculator spoke volumes.

Ralph was sitting on the table in the middle of the room, typing rapidly on his computer.

There was one pair missing from the scene, but Cabe was sure they would arrive soon, most likely emerging from upstairs, considering Ralph's presence in the garage and the open door of the air stream that indicated it had been in use.

They didn't have to wait long for the absent pair. Just a few minutes after Cabe's arrival, the door to the loft opened and Paige emerged, followed closely by Walter.

The pair descended the stairs. Paige stopped short, staring at the scene before her, while Walter moved over to the kitchen area to check for coffee.

"Guys? What's this?" Paige asked, motioning at them. "I thought we were meeting today to discuss the possibility of giving up Centipede Partners to rejoin Scorpion. You're already moving in!"

"Are you having any doubts about rejoining Scorpion?" Happy asked her.

"Uh.. no, but…" Paige started before Happy cut her off.

"Neither do we - the rest is just technicalities!"

"But you are putting us in a weaker position…" Paige tried to protest again.

"No, it's efficient!" Walter said from behind her, pressing her favourite mug into her hands. She involuntarily smiled as she smelled cinnamon along with coffee.

"And the probability that our negations will fail are very slim." Sylvester added. "We are all willing to work on our personal differences and are all in favour of getting Scorpion back together. We all know and dread the consequences if we don't."

"Fine, okay." Paige sighed as she sat down at the table in the middle of the room and waited for the others to join her.

Once everyone was assembled around the table, including Ralph, Cabe was the first to speak up.

"Before we start with reuniting Scorpion, Collins has been officially transferred from the FBI's custody to Homeland's. He's back in his old prison and won't be seeing the light of day anytime soon."

"I will sleep a lot better now!" Sylvester sighed.

Cabe nodded. "You're not the only one! Paige, you can go ahead with this meeting. I hope I'll be able to return the favour and give Director Rhodes some good news as well."

"Walter is the sole owner of Scorpion, at Centipede Partners we were all equal partners. How will we go from there?" Paige looked at the assembled geniuses.

"Equal partners with equal say in everything!" Toby said, almost aggressively as he stood to his full height. He looked challengingly at Walter, expecting him to contradict him.

Happy glared at her husband, annoyed that he began their meeting by trying to antagonise Walter.

"NO!" Everyone's eyes flew from Walter, whose reaction they had been looking for, to Paige, who had her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"Excuse me?" Toby asked, his voice pitching in disbelief. "Would you care to elaborate that?"

"If we all have equal say, we will not be getting anywhere with Scorpion!" Paige sighed, "Toby, Sylvester, I love the two of you, all of you are my family, but do I want to run a company with you as equal partners with equal say in everything ever again? NO! You were all so insistent to have equal say in Centipede Partners, but the only one who did any actual deciding was me - and when I did, half of the time you kept questioning and contradicting my decisions, arguing about them, only to do the same again if I changed my decision to the one you seemed to favor."

"Hey, Paige, that was just a ploy to…" Toby tried to placate her, but Paige was only just warming up.

"You couldn't even agree on office supplies. Everything had to be turned into a huge discussion and voted upon. We voted on the color of text markers, for crying out loud." She turned to Walter.

"I know they don't want to go back to being simple employees, but please, Walter, don't let them talk you into total equal say about everything, or I am going to go nuts!"

"You are right, we don't want to simply go back to being regular employees…," Sylvester started, then glared at Toby who clapped his shoulder.

"That's my man!" Toby interjected, then quickly withdrew from Sylvester as he saw his withering glare.

"BUT, I have to agree with Paige! We. well, mainly Toby, have been making a big discussion about every single detail. I mean, we even argued for over three hours about what toilet paper to buy at one point…"

"You're just angry you didn't get your way" Toby grumbled. "Why are you all making me the villain here?"

"Oh, stop wining, Numbnuts!" Happy grumbled. "Walter, what's your opinion?"

"You all remember that I did offer you equal shares a few years ago. But all of you declined because you didn't want to invest any money into Scorpion. As you know, Scorpion has been in the red figures since I took out that mortgage on the garage to post Cabe's bail, which then was reused to pay for Happy's and Toby's baby project when the charges against Cabe were dropped." Walter reminisced, "I would be agreeable to the concept of partnership, but not if this goes the way Paige and Sylvester described."

"I agree with Walter, here!" Cabe interjected. "We can not have you argue about details in the field or in front of a customer!"

"Before you guys start fighting again, I'd like to make a suggestion." Ralph suddenly spoke up.

Everyone looked at the teenager.

"There is this nice little concept called a compromise. Happy, Toby and Sylvester," he looked at the three geniuses in turn, "rather want to be partners in Scorpion than employees. Mom, Walter and Cabe," he looked at the other trio, "don't want every little thing to be turned into a discussion. Therefore, we find a compromise that combines both. You are all partners, but not every little thing is being decided by everyone. Every one of you has a unique skillset that forms an important piece of Scorpion. Everyone gets a field they are in charge of and can take decisions in without having to ask everyone else for their approval unless it has a vital impact on Scorpion. Only the big decisions that affect Scorpion itself, will be put up for discussion among all equal partners. Like a board of directors where each director has their own segment under their supervision."

Walter nodded his agreement.

"Paige would be in charge of everything that falls into her old role with Scorpion. You were amazing in your position and I can't imagine any one among us handling it better."

Paige blushed slightly at the praise. "Thank you, Walter!"

"Well, I am pretty sure we all agree that Walter is taking lead in the field!" Happy said.

Toby looked at her with surprise.

"Don't look at me like that, he is the best at considering all our abilities and put it into a plan. Crazy plans, sometimes, but so far Scorpion solved every case."

"I would feel a lot safer with Walter calling the shots in the field." Sylvester agreed.

"That sounds reasonable." Walter nodded. "Not only about me being the leader in the field, but about each partner getting a field they are in charge of and not everything having to be discussed in detail. We will hold weekly meetings to keep up to date about each other's fields."

"Good, everyone in favour, please raise your hand!" Paige said.

Everyone raised their hands.

"What fields will we be in charge of?" Sylvester asked. "Walter and Paige are pretty clear, but what about rest of us.

"Contracts and legal matters." Paige pointed at Sylvester, then looked at Happy. "Equipment and the security of the garage. Toby would be in charge of health and safety in medical regards."

Paige suddenly looked speculative. "Cabe, do you think you could get Director Rhodes to supply agents as "muscle" for our cases in future?"

Cabe raised an eyebrow at her.

"Walter is always doing all that physically dangerous stuff, but he's also the brains of Scorpion. If we loose him, we loose an important part of Scorpion.

Remember when Tim was with us?"

She ignored Walter's unhappy grunt at the mentioning of the interloper.

"We had an extra homeland agent for exactly what purpose?" She continued. "I have to admit I didn't realise it back then, but we had this young ex Navy Seal with us, but the one going down into tar pits was Walter, who isn't trained for this kind of action." A small grin appeared on her face, "Thought he could use some workout."

Walter opened his mouth to protest, but closed it again as he saw the mischievous glint in her eyes, daring him to protest. Instead he grumbled to himself.

"And to be honest, I am scared each and every time Walter heads into danger.. At least for the Homeland cases, I would really like Homeland to carry part of that danger on their shoulders."

"I could do more of the…" Cabe started, but Paige shook her head.

"No! You are not the youngest anymore and you already take on all the dangerous stuff you still physically can. I want you to live to see retirement and enjoy it with Allie." She smiled. "I also don't want Toby or Happy to do more dangerous stuff if it's not necessary. They are planning to adopt. It will help their application if they can make a point that they will not be the ones running headlong into physical danger for Homeland."

Paige turned to Walter.

"And I want us to become a family, Walter, I want us to work this time and I want to have a baby with you. Well, not right now, obviously, we just got back together last night, but one day, I would like to have a child with you."

"You… you want a baby with me?" Walter looked at her wide eyed.

Paige immediately regretted bringing the topic up in front of everyone. She had been getting ahead of herself with arguing for more Homeland involvement in their own cases and the last part had just slipped out before she couldn't come to the conclusion that it would have better been discussed in private first. It wasn't like Scorpion's members didn't have a habit of blurting things out…

"I'm sorry, I should have waited until we're alone until I brought it up."

"No, no, it's okay." Walter smiled. "I just… I thought we would already be a complete family, you, Ralph and me."

Paige smiled. "Of course we are. But I would love to have a child with you. I… I have to admit there were a few days a couple of months back when I thought I might be pregnant. I didn't want to say anything until I was sure. But when the pregnancy test was negative, I was a bit disappointed.

So, yes, I want to have a baby with you - unless you don't want to?"

"I.. yes, I'd love to have a baby with you!" Walter replied, a smile stealing onto his face.

The topic had come out of the blue for him, but his brain rapidly processed the new information and he liked the idea more and more each second.

"So, my first project being in charge of Scorpion's health and safety will be project Baby Waige!" Toby piped up, far too enthusiastic for Paige's liking.

Paige rolled her eyes. "Walter and my baby plans will NOT fall into your area, Toby! Besides, we are not going to start trying for a baby right now."

"Don't wait too long, your biological clock is ticking, Ms. Dineen!" Toby said, then cried out as Happy painfully jabbed his rips.

Paige stared Toby down until he gulped and quickly changed the topic.

"So…uh… is Scorpion back together?"

Walter looked around at the others, then slowly nodded.

"I'd way yes, Scorpion is back together."

The end.