Chapter Text
Sylvester nervously walked down the short hallway and stopped in front of Paige’s office. He looked in and saw her sitting at her computer typing away as her head moved to the beat of the music in her earbuds. He swallowed as he reached up and knocked on the open door.
Paige looked up and at first glance smiled as she pulled one side of the earbuds out of her ear. “Hey Sly,” she frowned now seeing the beads of sweat on his forehead. “What’s wrong?”
Sylvester tried to look confident and nonchalant but his nervousness washed it completely out. “Nothing really, um, it’s just that we got a potential new hire that the three of us want all of us to participate in an interview with.”
Paige’s frown didn’t go away. “Why are you bringing this to me now? Why didn’t this new hire come through the normal process?”
Sylvester moved back and forth on his feet. “Well it is just that she came to me first to test the water and I went to them and we just decided we should move forward with the interview process.”
Paige glared at him for a moment. “So we go from everyone having an equal voice to, what, to hell with how Paige might feel, we’ll just bring them in? Wait, you said she. It isn’t like you know a lot of women Sly, especially genius women that you’d have a problem coming to me about. Are you talking about Flo? You better not be talking about Flo.”
Sylvester nodded. “That’s the thing. It is Florence and she’s due here in about ten minutes for the interview.”
“What the hell Sly.” Paige nearly yelled.
“Sounds like Sly finally told Paige.” Toby laughed.
Happy looked up from her workbench. “Why do you think this is funny? I told you both we should have been straight up with her about this.”
Toby grinned. “Because it is funny and this way she can’t try to badger us into not hiring her.”
Happy shook her head. “When has Paige ever badgered us?”
Paige flew around the door and stared at the couple. “Thanks so much. I can’t believe you guys. You bring in that weasel, the weasel that helped destroy my life, behind my back. I can’t believe you guys couldn’t even be bothered to talk to me before you agreed to an interview.”
“Look Paige,” Toby started before Paige just turned and left.
“I told you. Not good.” Happy told him.
Paige stormed into her office and slammed the door so hard that six of Happy’s tools on the wall opposite of Paige’s office fell to the workbench under them.
Toby stared at the tools. “I might have miscalculated this.”
Happy looked over at him. “Oh, you think jackass?”
Florence pulled up outside of the Centipede Partners office and turned her car off. She swallowed as she picked up her phone and sent Sylvester a text letting him know she was outside.
A moment later she saw the door open and Sylvester stepped outside and looked around and then spotted her car. He waved with a big smile.
Florence opened her door and slowly slid out. As she locked the door and pushed it shut Sylvester moved down the first set of steps. “Hey Florence, it is so good to see you again.”
Florence smiled shyly as she looked up and began walking towards the lower steps. “Good morning Sylvester. Thank you for agreeing to an interview with me.”
Sylvester nodded as she reached the top of the lower steps. “Of course, Happy and Toby are really excited.”
Florence noticed he didn’t mention Paige but she nodded her head as he fell in beside her to walk up the upper steps.
“Preliminary discussions have been really positive. None of us have much of a chemistry background and that has curtailed a lot of jobs we could go after.” Sylvester told her as he opened the office door for her.
Florence nodded as she stepped inside.
Sylvester gestured down the hall they were in front of and they walked on down to two open doors. Sylvester half turned to his right and Florence looked in and saw Happy and Toby sitting at a large conference table.
Toby grinned and waved her on in. “Grab a seat Florence. Welcome to our new digs.”
Florence smiled as she nodded and sat down in one of the chairs.
Sylvester walk around her and sat down in his normal seat.
They sat with Toby making weird comments and observations while waiting on Paige. Happy looked at her watch. “We’re ten minutes over the interview start time.”
Toby adjusted his hat and he pushed back in his chair and started to stand when Paige walked into the conference room. She walked past Florence and took her seat. “Glad you could join us Ms Dineen.” Toby told her glibly.
Paige glared at him and he quickly adjusted his hat again as he looked at Happy who was pointedly ignoring him. “Sly,” Toby said finally.
Florence spoke up before Sylvester could say anything. “If it is okay, I’d like to say something before we begin.”
Toby nodded as he gestured. “I think that is an excellent idea.”
Florence looked down at first and then looked to Sylvester and then over to Paige. “I know I was involved in what ultimately led to the breakup of both Scorpion and Walter and Paige’s relationship. I want to apologize for my part but also to say that was never my intention.”
Paige rolled her eyes and huffed as she looked to the other side of the room.
Sylvester swallowed hard. “Uh, Florence, maybe you can explain to us, why Centipede Partners.”
Florence nodded with just a little smile. “Honestly, I miss you guys. I’d gotten so use to all of you and it hurts being away from you. But also because I’ve been reduced to answering phones and dealing with paperwork for clients because the only jobs Walter seems to land anymore are programming and computer systems, none of which are my strong suit.”
“So my income from Scorpion 2.0 is just the base minimum and while it keeps a roof over my head and food on my table it isn’t enough. And perhaps it would be if it wasn’t for Walter’s attitude. He’s unbelievably cold and distant. He barely speaks unless I make a mistake and then I’ll get three or four words along with the crashing sound of a coffee mug or whatever is closest to him.”
“Oh brother,” Paige said softly.
Happy looked up at Florence after looking at Paige. “What did you expect Walter to do? Sweep you off your feet and romance you?”
Florence looked shocked but shook her head. “There was never anything like that between us. I might have had some feelings for him but that was a one way street and I was never going down it. Walter may have acted friendly but it was only because of shared interests. There was nothing outside of those interests for him. And after you all left him he wouldn’t even engage those interests around me.”
Paige rolled her eyes as she huffed again.
Toby looked at Paige. “Would you like to ask a question Ms Dineen?”
Paige glared at him. “No, you’ve demonstrated you are quite capable of screwing things up all on your own. Starting with the fact that you guys brought her in here behind my back.”
Happy looked from Paige back to Florence. “Well I’ll be honest with you Florence. I’m only about sixty percent on board with hiring you. And I was zero percent on board with these two idiots for holding back on telling Paige they were bringing you in for an interview. I think it was unbelievably insensitive on their part. And while I understand your feeling about missing us I am completely surprised you would even reach out to us knowing what you helped happen between Walt and Paige and Scorpion in general.” Happy told her.
Paige turned in her chair and grabbed her paperwork she had brought in and stood up to leave.
“Umm, Paige, what is your position in hiring Florence?” Sylvester asked nervously.
“What does it matter? Clearly you and Toby want her and Happy is more for hiring her than not so that’s majority. You guys can believe her little sad sack routine. I fell for it once. I’m not falling for it again.” Paige told him before walking out of the room.
Happy reached over and slapped the back of Toby’s head. “Ow,” Toby exclaimed.
“I told you this was a bad idea.” Happy told him.
Toby looked at Florence. “When can you start?”
Florence looked back from the hallway after watching Paige leave. “Well, I’d kind of like to give Walter notice.”
Toby laughed. “Well you have no experience with Walter and quitting so I will save you some trouble. You will explain eloquently but efficiently that you are turning in your two week notice and he’ll calmly tell you that you can go ahead and quit on the spot. Besides there is only one person who ever quit on Walter and got hired back. And she just walked out of here in a huff.”
Happy looked at the three of them and stood up. “Well you don’t need me here for the rest of this.” She walked out into the hallway and turned and walked towards the front of the offices. She stopped at Paige’s door and knocked.
“Come in.” Paige said from the other side.
Happy opened the door and stepped in closing it behind her. “You okay?”
Paige looked up at her. “How can you possibly stand there and ask me that? You guys bring in the woman with a hand in the demise of my very happiness not to mention the great thing we all had going in Scorpion for a job.”
Happy nodded. “Yea, but are you okay?”
Paige rolled her eyes.
“I get it Paige. I was totally against them bringing her in without at least talking to you about it.” Happy told her.
“I get that, but why didn’t you say something? I thought we were friends.” Paige demanded.
“Because majority rules. They didn’t want to tell you so I couldn’t.” Happy told her as she sat down in one of the other chairs.
“Majority rules, are you kidding me? That’s a child’s answer. I don’t know why I am surprised. You guys never valued me or anything I ever did for Scorpion so why should things be different here. I was just the dumb normal who stocked the shelves and paid the bills and requested payment from clients.” Paige shook her head.
“Come on Paige, you know that isn’t true.” Happy tried to explain.
Paige looked over at Happy. “Oh really now and how many times did you call me waitress? Like that was the best I could be. And how about as I tried to assist you in planning getting married to Toby you tell me we’re friends’ish.”
Happy looked back at her. “Well first calling you waitress is like when I call Doc fungus. Because that was an analogy he made of himself. It is just a diminutive I share with you. It was never meant to be an insult.”
“Well it always felt like an insult since I am the dumbest one on the team.” Paige told her as she looked down at her fingers as she picked at her nails.
“You’re not dumb, you are just normal. I’m sorry but I can’t change that. As for the friends’ish comment, I thought we got past that.” Happy looked at her.
Paige looked up at her. “Of course you would. You’ve gotten a little better emotionally since then but look at today. Regardless to what those two block heads wanted, as a friend you should have come to me instead of me being blindsided ten minutes before that bitch comes into the building.”
Happy nodded. “Well I’ll give you that. I should have. I knew it was a mistake. Just like I knew it was a mistake that Walter wouldn’t tell you about going to that damn lecture with her.”
Paige reached over and rolled her pencil around on the desk when there was a knock on her door. “What.” Paige said gruffly.
The door opened and Sylvester and Toby were standing there. “She left.”
Paige rolled her eyes.
Toby stepped in and sat down next to Happy. “Come on Paige. You know this would be a good thing. We can apply for even more jobs. We might even be able to start wrestling Homeland jobs away from Walter.”
Paige glared at him. “Oh yea, how about if I had brought your ex-fiancé in to work for Scorpion just before you and Happy got married and not told you. How would you feel about that?”
“That would have been just rude.” Toby told her half joking.
“What the hell do you guys want? You got your majority vote to hire the bitch. Leave me alone.” Paige demanded.
“Well we don’t want this to disrupt things here.” Sylvester volunteered.”
Paige glared up at him. “Then you shouldn’t have hid this from me until minutes before she showed up. So now you can just deal with the fallout of what you caused.”
“Well the thing is we can’t have a hostile workplace.” Toby told her as he sat forward in his chair.
Happy reached over and slapped the back of his head.
“Ow. Except for that, that is.” Toby half joked.
“Oh sure, make jokes and treat me like crap and now that I am pissed off dismiss me and how I feel, I don’t know why I am surprised.” Paige glared at him.
“Come on Paige. We need to discuss this and find a way we can all work together.” Toby continued.
“No we don’t need to discuss it. If you wanted for us to find a way to work together you shouldn’t have done this. You are just wanting to find a way to make you feel better for what you did and keep her as an employee. You guys betrayed me.” Paige continued glaring at him.
Toby looked at Sylvester and Happy. “Okay, how about we table this until after lunch.”
Paige rolled her eyes and watched as they walked out of her office. “Table it as long as you want Toby. I’m not forgetting this betrayal. And close my damn door.”
Sylvester stopped and stepped back in and grabbed the door. “I’m really sorry Paige. I didn’t think you would be this upset.”
Paige glared at him. “Right, that is why you concealed what you were doing. I can almost forgive Happy, she’s still working on an EQ deficit but you’ve got EQ in spades. You knew exactly what this would mean to me. But you couldn’t see past your hormones to do the right thing.”
He sighed as Paige continued to glare at him daring him to contradict her. He closed the door.
Paige put her head in her hands. “What a fool I am. It wasn’t perfect but I traded a good thing with Walter for this crap.”