Walter stood in the outer office after the door closed behind Centipede Partners. He was trying to wrap his brilliant mind around what had just happened. The love of his life had joined up with his brother and two best friends and they somehow started their own problem solving company. They even acquired shirts and managed to look professional and in such a short time. But then, with Paige helping them, it didn't really surprise him, she was so remarkable once she was given a chance. He stepped over and slumped into one of the cushioned chairs, how did he get here he wondered.

One minute he was loving his life the next he was dodging questions, trying to justify his actions since he'd asked Florence to go to a lecture. Even when it looked like he could die and Paige begged him to come clean, and he couldn't do it. He couldn't see that he was standing on a bigger landmine with her than he was on in the middle of the desert. He'd always been truthful in the past, painfully truthful to those around him even. Why couldn't he have been truthful this time? Now it was too late, everything was lost.

Except for Cabe he lost everyone who meant something to him and most importantly he lost Paige and through her Ralph. He leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes and pressed his hands into his eyes. How many times had he irritated Paige, even before they started dating, by being too logical, too truthful, dismissive of her friends, of the things she liked. How many times had she embraced things he loved even though she couldn't stand them just to be able to share something with him? How many times had he inadvertently insulted Paige and Cabe because their IQs were normal, because he couldn't understand that what he was saying was an insult to someone who had feelings, not just a fact? Didn't he feel hurt when someone insulted him? He even allowed a criminal to goad him into racing that car before Happy was finished searching his office by insulting him. How could he not relate the two? He began smacking his forehead with his fists.

"Walter?" Paige said out loud as she ran over to him and pulled his wrists back trying to stop him from pounding on his head out of fear he could hurt himself.

Walter jerked his hands down and opened his eyes. Seeing Paige standing before him with concern on her face and he tried to stand up quickly but the seatbelt stopped him from getting up too far and he fell back into the jump seat. He looked about the cargo plane trying to get his bearings, "Walter, what is wrong? You were crying, pounding on your head, are you okay?" Paige asked as she pressed her hand against the side of his face and felt his forehead with her other hand, to see if he had a fever, once he quit fighting against her.

"Paige? What, what's going on?" Walter asked still confused.

"We're getting ready to land in LA, why were you crying and hitting yourself?" Paige asked again as she sat next to him.

"Land in LA? I don't understand, weren't we just on a job bid against each other?" Walter asked.

Paige frowned, "A job bid against each other? Why would we be at a job bid in opposition of each other? Did that landmine do something to you Walter? You're not making any sense, let me get Toby over here."

"No, Paige, wait, don't. I've got to tell you something." Walter pleaded.

Paige nodded slowly as she sat back down with concern on her face.

"I wasn't completely honest with you back in the desert, there was something else I have, I need to tell you." Paige could see the fear in his eyes. "Something I haven't told you about that I did, sometime ago, about the lecture, something I have actually been hiding for a few days now because I was scared, I was scared because Toby and Happy told me what I did was bad, but Paige, I," Walter's fear was causing him to get more nervous, he was beginning to panic, he was rushing to speak but getting no where.

Paige interrupted him, "Walter, try to calm down. Whatever it is, just tell me now, we're not leaving this plane until you do, and as long as you do, we can work through it, if you just tell me the truth now."

Walter nodded as he took in a deep breath, "You already know part of it, when we came back from the bayou I heard you tell Ralph you really didn't want to go to the lecture, and so I told you the white lie that the lecture was cancelled. But it wasn't, it had been sold out for months."

Paige nodded, "Okay, I know you told me you went to it."

Walter nodded, "But I didn't go alone. I went to ask Sylvester if he wanted to go but he had something else he was going to do," Walter continued.

Paige nodded as Walter took her hands in his.

"I saw Toby and Happy hadn't left yet so I stopped them to see if one of them wanted to go, but like Sly, they had plans as well." Walter told her.

Paige saw tears in his eyes as his story became harder for him to tell. "This is what you were really wanting to tell me when I was in the wheel well of that plane with that boy the other day."

Walter nodded as a few tears ran down his cheeks, "I just didn't want the ticket to go to waste and so I, I asked Florence." Walter's head dropped as he looked off to the side as he waited for Paige's anger, for her to start screaming about how emotionally stunted he was, what a drain he was on her. How it wasn't worth all the effort to be with him.

Paige lifted one hand and raised his chin, so she could see his eyes, "And what happened?"

He looked into he eyes, fearing the anger and hurt he would see like in his dream, but only saw compassion and love, "Nothing, honestly, absolutely nothing, she said yes, and I picked her up after she changed clothes and we went to the lecture and I dropped her back off at her side of the garage." Walter told her.

Paige nodded as she could see he was relaxing a little, "Okay, so go on."

Walter shook his head, "That was it, I know now I should have told you but I really didn't think it was an issue until at the ball game the other day. Happy and Toby were accusing Florence and I of having some kind of an affair, but I swear we never did. We have never touched in any fashion. She doesn't like me in that fashion and I have no interest in anyone but you. We both kept telling them there was nothing between us, that neither of us wanted anything to do with the other and that nothing had happened between us."

Paige nodded, "Walter,"

"No, please, let me finish. You are the only woman I will ever love. I know I am insensitive and clueless. I have a hard time getting into the things you like, and I struggle with your friends. I make stupid comments not realizing how insulting I am, how it makes you and Cabe hurt because I say things about normal IQs and I really don't mean to be, for some reason I just don't see it in the moment. I am trying and I will keep trying if you just give me the chance, please." Walter asked.

Paige smiled, "Walter, I believe you. I don't like that you didn't tell me about going with Florence, but we can work on this."

"You forgive me?" Walter asked almost in disbelief.

Paige nodded, "But from now on, when I am going home, you are coming with me. No more working late at the Garage without me there. It's more to keep the tongues from wagging than me not trusting and believing in you. Plus as a couple we haven't been spending much time together away from work and that is not good or healthy for our dating relationship and that needs to change. I want you to keep growing emotionally so we have got to start spending time together in a non-work situation. It's the only way you can learn and grow in our relationship. You can bring your laptop home every other day with you and work from there from now on okay? But the opposite days are family days and the three of us will only do family things. If Ralph is at Caltech that night or visiting Drew then it will be a date night, just you and I."

Walter smiled and she could see joy in his eyes, "That's fine I can accept those conditions."

"This is partly my fault for doing a poor job of explaining a white lie to you. All day that day you struggled trying to figure out how to do it. So I'm not surprised you made a mistake over it." Paige told him while she ran her hand through his hair.

"I really don't want to practice white lies anymore. I would rather just be honest, especially with you. From now on I will ask you if you want to go to a lecture first, and if you don't, you just tell me. I will either just get one ticket or I will make arrangements to get a copy of the lecture." Walter told her.

Paige looked at his hands holding hers, "So, what made you finally tell me what happened? Does it have anything to do with you crying and hitting yourself?"

Walter nodded, "Apparently I fell asleep and I had a dream that we had already arrived back at the Garage and you had been up in the loft and found the two ticket stubs and you confronted me and I admitted I took someone else and Florence walked in and you just knew she had gone with me. You were so mad at me for hiding the truth, you broke up with me, you and Sylvester walked out on me and Toby and Happy followed you out the door. The next thing I knew I was at a job bid with Cabe and Florence and when we walked out, you guys were there waiting your time to make a pitch. You'd started your own problem solving company, Centipede Partners. It was devastating."

Paige smiled and hugged Walter, "I'm sorry you had that dream, it had to really hurt. But I am glad you had it too, since it got you to admit what happened. Now we can move forward, stronger together."

"It was without a doubt the worst experience of my life. To see how disappointed you were in me, how much I had hurt you, to hear how tired of me and my immaturity you were." Walter told her before kissing her.

Happy looked over at Walter and Paige being affectionate with each other and she looked back at Toby and smiled, "Looks like your plan worked."

Toby nodded, "I hated doing it, but we had to do something. Thanks for distracting Paige after the tea knocked him out. All I had to do was make a suggestion to his subconscious of what could happen and his brain did the rest. I'm just glad he took the hint and finally confessed the truth to her. Let's hope this is the last time we ever have to intervene like this again."

"Or that either of them find out what we did, that could almost be as bad for us if they did," Happy told him.

Sylvester looked up from his laptop and saw Paige and Walter smiling and laughing with each other. He looked at Happy and Toby with a smile, "Man, it sure is good seeing them so happy. They haven't been that happy in a while. Almost felt like a dark cloud over the Garage for a while now."

Toby looked at him, "Relax Sly, neither Walter nor Florence want anything to do with the other. So when we get back, either you go over and ask Florence out or I'm going to do it for you."

"Wha-what makes you think I want to ask her out?" Sylvester became defensive.

"Are you kidding? You couldn't wait to butt into the conversations under the bleachers and each time it was like, 'The good thing to remember is neither of you has feelings for the other,'" Happy mimicked him. "Just ask her out already Sly, she obviously likes spending time with you. But if you keep waiting someone else will come along and ask her out and then it'll be like Walter and Tim with Paige all over again and I can't take that."

The intercom came on and they heard, "This is your Captain speaking, we've been cleared to land at El Segundo airbase and we should be landing in just over ten minutes, so strap yourself in for landing."

Walter looked up and over to Paige, "Oh no, I forgot to call Cabe. Did you think to call him?"

Paige shook her head but got out her phone and pulled up his contact and hit dial.

Walter looked over at Happy and the guys on the other side of the cargo plane, "Sorry guys, I forgot to call Cabe so we'll have to wait a bit for a ride back to the Garage."

Toby smiled, "It's worth it 197."

Walter frowned, "What's worth it?"

Toby's eyes opened real big, "He just means what we did, and it was worth having to hang out and wait for a ride. Plus we've decided we're going to try adoption." Happy told him.

Walter smiled, "That's really great guys, I'm proud of you."

Toby and Happy looked at each other and back to Walter, "Who are you and what did you do to Walter O'Brien?"

Walter just smiled as he heard Paige hang up her phone.

"Okay, Cabe is on his way to pick us up," Paige said loud enough for everyone to hear her. She linked her arm back through Walter's.

"Now, what are we going to do when we get back to the Garage?" Paige asked.

"Well, it's Sunday so I say we're going back to your place where we will spend the evening together as a family." Walter told her. He saw her smile and his own smile flash up and she bent forward and kissed him.

"Very good answer baby," Paige told him. "What are we going to do tomorrow evening?"

Walter swallowed, "Well, provided Ralph doesn't have anything he wants to do with me, I'm going to work on a new algorithm to use on our satellite transceiver and see if it will allow us to contact Cassi, if that's okay?"

Paige smiled, "That will be fine, unless Ralph isn't going to be home. Then what will we do?"

Walter smiled even bigger, "Date night."

"Good boy," Paige told him.

I don't know if it was the forced hiatus or what, but had a difficult time writing, it didn't help that this story and the other were both talking but not strongly so struggled to get one of them done. This is hopefully the last 'fix it' story for the end of season 4. I already got 4 story lines and I certainly do not need anymore and hopefully this is remain a one shot. Hopefully now I can get back to 'A Knight Among Monsters' for tomorrow, to the Adventure! -Tim