Chapter Text
AU - 75 "I Only State Facts":
Walter and Paige sat in the living room of the Loft with all their family and friends after dinner and their counterparts were gone. They were all intrigued and listening to what Paige had to say about what she had experienced. The family photo of the Dineen-O'Brien clan was the hottest topic. It was further spurred on when Paige pulled out a copy of the Teen Beat Magazine that featured teen Walter and his girlfriend teen Paige. Walter blushed repeatedly. And then Paige pulled out the pièce de résistance as she had reached in to get the photo of the string art. She found teen Paige had snuck a copy of the newspaper following the Christmas ball at the Embassy into her diaper bag.
"I can't believe your Dad let Walter take you to this at twelve." Sean said as he read the paper with Louise. "I'm not sure I'd have allowed it myself. Walter was only thirteen."
Louise slapped his hands.
"See, this just goes to prove you don't have to be such a jackass all the time. At least this Sean has some forward thinking." Louise teased as everyone laughed.
Paige finally pulled out the photograph of the string art and handed it to Walter as everyone continued looking at the other items.
"Teen Walter made this for his Paige." Paige told him with tears in her eyes. "There is a version of you out there that sees there is value in art expression while maintaining his scientific curiosity." Paige told him softly.
Walter nodded as he stared at the picture.
"It seems so expressive. It seems to be saying something. Perhaps love?" Walter said as he stared at it.
Paige nodded quickly.
"These two shapes…they must represent our birth dates and our relative age of the time. And I'm going to say this one is Father's and Mother's birth dates. This one would be your Father's and this one your Mother's. And this has to be Happy's birthday. I'm not sure what the orange is." Walter frowned. "Wait, with how it interacts with everything else does this have something to do with Scorpion?" Walter looked to Paige who sat there grinning and nodding.
"That's exactly right Walter." Paige said excitedly. "It was the day that Walter, Paige and Happy formed the core of Scorpion."
"Then that makes these three predictive dates someone joining Scorpion…or being born." Walter looked up and saw Paige still nodding with a wide grin.
"Teen Walter predicted the birth of a child in December 2005 and twins in February 2015. A bit off for us." Paige grinned as she squeezed Walter's arm. "Which of course December 2005 is when Ralph was born."
"So, what is this about needing Walter and Ralph taking a DNA test?" Happy asked.
Paige blushed but then explained what happened in March of 2005.
"I have to admit, I did get mugged at that motel on that date. And when I did regain consciousness I." Walter paused as he looked at everyone grinning at him. When he saw Ralph he coughed. "Never mind."
Everyone laughed at him.
"So it seems like you feel this life was the best of the ones you visited, which one was the worst?" Toby asked.
AU - Pamz's "Arrhythmia":
"Oh gawd, that is easy. First, nothing against Tim, but how so many of my counterparts could ever go out with him is beyond me, but. The worst one was this one where I ended up in the breakroom of this really crappy diner." Paige started.
"Worse than Nemos'?" Sylvester asked.
Paige nodded.
"I found my counterpart there as a waitress. Looking horrible and feeling worse. For the most part her life had seemed much like so many others. But a few months before the Florence fiasco most of them had experienced, there was another wrinkle. Some brainy woman had been trying to cozy up to Walter and it had set off the insecurities a lot of us Paiges seem to have. And right about that same time Tim had come back from overseas and wanted to meet up with her. She ended up having an affair with him. At one point, her Walter had gotten suspicious and followed her one time and found them at some motel." Paige sighed as her and Walter squeezed each other's hand.
"He suffered a severe arrhythmia and was rushed to the hospital. The story of what he saw was quickly disseminated to the Cyclone and when she got to the hospital after finding out he'd been rushed there she knew she was mud." Paige said sadly.
"Oh man, I'd have killed you if you had done that." Happy said hotly.
"I'd have let you." Paige nodded in agreement.
"I wouldn't have." Walter said softly. "Your death would have devastated me. I'm not sure how I'd respond in the moment between you and I if it happened. But I'd never allow you to be harmed, I'd make sure you were cared for."
Paige smiled up at him and kissed his lips tenderly.
"She said her therapist said part of her problem was she was afraid to be happy. And she had been the happiest in her life with her Walter." Paige told them. "Funny thing is as it was almost the end of shift for her, I saw in a mirror that her Walter had walked into the diner. At first she wasn't going to go out there. She just wanted to enjoy looking at the twins. But I made her. Turned out he hadn't known she was there, but the love on his face." Paige pointed at Walter's expression. "Just like that. They ended up going to the beach to talk."
"She said Ralph hated her too." Paige sighed. "I really hope they get it worked out."
"Amazing. That would really be something for you to forgive Walter. How's that make you feel?" Toby asked.
"I'd like to think I could forgive Paige anything, but that would take something special. After being apart from her for a year, that would probably make me wake up to what I was missing." Walter nodded. "So I probably would forgive her. I suppose in a way if I thought I wasn't fulfilling some need that someone else could, I wouldn't like it but I'd probably try to find some way to be okay with it to have her back." Walter looked to Paige.
Paige smiled and shook her head.
"There isn't any part of me that you aren't fulfilling." Paige said lovingly even as she snapped her fingers and wagged her finger at Toby.
"Well, I'm just glad you and our twins are home now." Sean told her.
"So if that was the worst, what was the strangest?" Toby asked.
"You mean besides Cabe being a Magic user?" Paige chuckled.
AU - 2LawDog's "Farrah Hair and Pheromones":
"Well, there was this one. Cabe had left the Cyclone to retire with his new wife and young step son. They had twins together a short while later. They'd moved to the vineyards his family had in New York. He was running them with his step son." Paige smiled as they all looked at her with frowns.
"I mean, just because I never thought about it. It isn't to say that Cabe's age would be a deal breaker. But I believe his Paige was very happy in their life. Apparently he'd even asked his Walter for permission to date her. But that Walter hadn't been as interested in his Paige apparently. That kind of bruised my ego, just a bit." Paige grinned at the look on Cabe's face.
"Okay, no offense Cabe, but seriously, that is strange." Toby told them.
Cabe just smiled.
"I'd have been honored if that had happened. Sorry son." Cabe grinned at Walter teasingly.
"Dolce metà." "Sweet half." Paige grinned at Cabe.
"Mio Dio, Tesorina." "My God, Sweetheart." Cabe replied.
"When did you start speaking Italian?" Sylvester asked.
"The other Cabe and Paige taught me a few words." Paige grinned.
"I did get to meet the counterpart to your friend Keliah, Mio Amato." "My Love." Paige told Walter as she ran her hand down his cheek.
AU - ScorplinginTraining's "Bully For You": For reference.
Walter coughed nervously.
"Who's Keliah? First I've heard of her." Toby asked as his eyes drank in several embarrassment markers.
"She was an old work friend who helped Walter and Megan when a drought was hurting his parents' farm. They were having a hard time paying for Megan's treatments." Paige told him as Walter nodded.
"I remember that. My boy was so embarrassed he had to go to her for help to pay the bills we couldn't. It really hurt Sean's pride too." Louise smiled. "But I'm so grateful she was in a position where she was able to afford the money to help keep our girl healthy."
Paige sucked in her lips after her head turned to face Walter. She quickly planted a kiss hard into Walter's lips to keep from laughing out loud.
"So what was the scariest one?" Happy asked.
Paige chuckled as she pulled back.
"Personally or more in general?" Paige asked.
"Personally." Happy grinned.
"Well before I begin, Ralph, go get your shower. You don't need to hear this." Paige told him.
Ralph complained but the look on Walter's face made him stop immediately and apologize before sulking into the hallway to the bathroom.
Paige smiled at Walter.
AU - Lucy Conan's "Dating Disaster":
"Okay, well they all were pretty scary since I didn't know if I would ever get back here. But, I suppose this one for the other Paige. Like so many others they had broken up because of this Florence woman going to the lecture with Walter. But what had happened was, Toby had encouraged Paige to try going out on a date with this guy she met at the store. Little did they know he was a serial rapist and murderer." Paige told them.
Everyone gasped at that thought.
"The date had gone badly. He'd exhibited a number of things that told Paige to get out of there and so she did. She should have waited inside the restaurant, but while waiting for her Uber to show up the guy came out and grabbed her and dragged her into an alley. He ripped at her clothes, groping and kissing her. And finally she was able to plant her knee into his gooty." Paige smiled.
"Where did you come up with that word?" Toby whined.
"Apparently it is a word you use a lot after you and Happy married in those other worlds." Paige smirked. "But she got away and thanks to Ralph and the fact that a TV show had been shot in that restaurant they were able to get actual footage of the man. So he was caught. Their Scorpion came back together because then director Carlson was canned for inappropriate behavior. And the new head of Homeland wanted Scorpion back, the original Scorpion, not Scorpion 2.0, as Walter had renamed it."
"Okay, so what was the scariest generally?" Sylvester asked.
AU - Lucy Conan's "Buried Alive":
"Well in this one world, thankfully it was after all of it happened. But in it, their breakup had been a ruse to lure Collins out of hiding. Apparently in most of these worlds he escapes again, some time after Happy and Toby get married and just disappears. But in this one he figures out the break up was a sham. He kidnapped Walter and Paige. He buried them alive in a graveyard. They were barely rescued in time." Paige told them.
"Man, I just love this." Happy grinned. "So let's say our lives in Callan weren't your favorite, which would you have gone with?"
"They all had their charms, some a little more messed up than others. But I suppose the one that would rise a little over the rest." Paige shook her head.
AU - MysticalGoddessofWords "Because You Want To":
"I ended up in their hotel room in Ireland. Walter and Paige were on their honeymoon. This took place sometime after Collins kidnapped Toby. In it, like so many worlds, Happy and Walter had married so Walter wouldn't be deported." Paige sighed.
"In that world Paige was with Tim and Happy was pregnant with Toby's baby. She filed for a divorce from Walter and that set USCIS into overdrive investigating their marriage. She'd claimed Walter was emotionally inaccessible and always was, which raised the question of why she would have married him in the first place." Paige told them.
"Walter's attorney said it would have been different if it was him wanting the divorce to marry another person. And Paige stepped up to do that. It of course caused quite a commotion. Tim was quite put out over it to say the least. She didn't even talk to him about it before saying she'd marry Walter. When the attorney said he couldn't condone a fraudulent marriage she said it wouldn't be fraudulent. And when he asked about that, Ralph spoke up saying that Walter and his Mom loved each other." Paige smiled.
"Unfortunately I wasn't there long so I didn't learn a lot. I know Paige was mad at Walter that morning for something. They had to rush me into Ralph's room next door as the agents investigating their marriage showed up. But before they were done I was pulled to another world." Paige yawned.
"Maybe we better quit for the night." Walter smiled.
"Wait, so it seems like you weren't just going to alternate universes but different times in them. What was the furthest out in the future you saw?" Happy almost begged. "What were our lives like?"
Paige sighed.
AU - 35 "Head Space (For Rent)" "Farewell":
"Okay, but this is the last one guys. It was fifty years in the future, after they came back together from the break up. So about fifty two years from now. I arrived in the bedroom in the Loft. I saw a fifty almost sixty year old Ralph hugging a fifty some year old woman who looked something like me. They were both crying. Everyone looked sad. I saw a seventy some year old Happy and a seventy year old Sylvester and his wife, he married Florence. She was in her eighties. I met the young woman, well she was fifty something too, Happy and Toby had adopted, her name was Sasha, her full name was Alexandra. She was half Asian, but I'm not sure which ethnicity. Happy and Toby had actually gotten pregnant around the time they finalized the adoption. And they had a son. Ralph was married with three children. Megan Happy was the woman who looked like me. She was Walter and Paige's daughter, and she was married to Sly and Florence's son and they had three children as well." Paige smiled.
"Cabe and Toby were already gone. Cabe died of a broken heart when his wife Allie had died shortly before him. Toby had a heart attack a couple of years before I got there. And Walter and Paige had just died moments before on the bed there in the bedroom." Paige told them.
"We adopted a little girl?" Happy said, amazed.
Paige nodded.
"Apparently there were some fertility issues between the two of them. But Toby had gotten sent through a quantum entanglement experiment with Sly and a friend of Cabe's and it seemed to have fixed that issue and shortly after adopting Sasha you guys found out you were pregnant." Paige smiled tiredly.
"Oh, all of this talk of our counterparts reminded me of something I need you to do tomorrow." Paige told him pointedly.
Walter frowned.
"Which is?" Walter asked apprehensively.
"If that other part of the building isn't part of our Garage, buy it. Immediately. I'm not putting up with this Florence person coming into our lives." Paige told him.
AU - 1001 "Lady Knight":
"That was a very amazing story of all that happened, my love." Lady Paige told Walter as he was massaging her feet.
"It was a very interesting time. But, I'm glad to be back here with you and our son." Walter told her as he shifted to her other foot.
"What about these books Happy brought back with her?" Lady Paige asked as she flipped through one on architecture.
"My counterpart was very concerned about those. He did ask that we leave one behind. Something about a kind of power. What did he call it?" Walter paused for a moment. "Nuclear energy. He seemed particularly concerned about it."
Paige nodded absently as she flipped a page.
"Oh right there." Paige said softly.
Walter smiled as he continued to squeeze and manipulate the bones and muscles of her foot.
"These buildings are amazing. Who would have thought glass could be used to construct such a building." Paige told him.
"Ah yes, well as we found out the glass is only used as the covering for the building. Keeping the weather out. Behind the glass is steel and mortar." Walter explained. "But I confess, not all they have is what it is worth. Those SUVs they drive for instance. They are quick, comfortable and powerful for sure. But they emit a horrible air out of the end of them. Their Cabe explained it as exhaust. They admitted that even with all the limits they put on them, that nauseous fume still pollutes their world, making the air foul to inhale."
"So all these SUVs were the same?" Paige frowned.
"Well there is a new type of SUV they have been slowly getting out. It is called an electric car. Instead of using the gas the SUV uses, it is charged by electricity, I guess like a lightning bolt. And it has the means to store it. When you need to go somewhere it uses that energy to drive the mechanism of the car. But they said there was no foul exhaust from it. Something like Ralph's Fox." Walter explained even as his hands began sliding up and down her lower legs now.
Paige grinned as she felt his movements but pretended to be absorbed in the book.