This is pure angst, and it doesn't have a happy ending or really any resolution. I'm not even entirely sure why I wrote it except that it was cathartic. You've all been warned. If you can handle that, then this is basically an alternate version of "Something Burrowed, Something Blew" after Walter gets trapped underground and is just based off a parallel I was thinking about with Walter and Paige from Cabe's perspective.
If you got something you need to tell Paige, you need to man up and tell her yourself.
He really believed that Walter would.
At least, he thought Walter would get the chance. Whether he'd have taken it or not, Cabe couldn't predict with certainty. But at the time, he had little doubt that the two of them would see each other again.
Walter's words, which he'd initially dismissed as carbon monoxide-fueled rambling, were an ugly reality now. The odds of getting out are low. So I need you to tell Paige something. Tell her I'm sorry. That I was wrong. They'd been through so many dangerous situations. Walter had cheated death on countless missions. Why was this the one time they reached him too late?
Life could never be taken for granted. Cabe learned that lesson the day he lost his daughter. But as many risks as Walter accepted for the greater good, he'd always seemed...untouchable. Invincible. A part of the agent was continually waiting for his son to jog down the stairs from the loft, asking why they all looked so strange. Paige would pull him to the side, quietly explaining that they were in mourning. He was never good at reading a room. That was why he had her.
Cabe, if this thing doesn't work then you need to tell her.
He remembered the first time Walter begged him to deliver a message to Paige. The genius was hanging off the edge of a cliff, saved only by a master stroke of luck or the karma of every good thing he'd done. He refused to let go, refused to die until Paige and Ralph knew how much he loved them. He never got a chance to say that, of course. But Cabe could fill in the blanks well enough.
It did work. When Walter was back on solid ground, Paige and Ralph once again permanent fixtures in his life, Cabe assumed that he would tell her the truth. That the small smiles and glances from their desks would grow into something substantial, something Walter had never considered himself capable or worthy of. But days passed, weeks, months, and he stayed silent. They came together and pulled apart, over and over, until Paige gave up hope of ever hearing what Cabe already knew was in Walter's heart.
And now...god, they'd been so close. He could see a change in the air between them, and Walter was ready, Paige was free, they needed each other and Cabe wanted nothing more than for both of them to find happiness. Watching her storm out of the garage, dragging her son behind her, made him simultaneously furious with and crushed for Walter. He was letting it all slip through his fingers the way Cabe always regretted doing, and there was no way for any of them to stop it.
Tell her I'm sorry. That I was wrong. Their comms had been out. Cabe was now the only person alive who held that knowledge, knew what Walter so desperately wanted to tell Paige with his last words but still couldn't find the courage to. Cabe hated that Walter felt any regret in that moment, let alone the regret of alienating the two most important people in his life. Hated that he'd shut Walter down, refused to listen. Whatever else Walter had hoped to say died with him.
It wasn't Cabe's prerogative to choose whether or not he told Paige. Walter made that choice when he spent his final moments, facing death twice, years apart, trying to repair what he'd ruined. Trying to make sure she wouldn't hate him when he was gone.
In the hour since Ralph fell asleep, Paige had been sitting on the stairs, staring out at nothing. She and Walter both put on such a brave face that morning, pretending that a month apart had barely affected them, but that facade was long washed away. Cabe lowered himself next to her, one hand coming up to rub her back. "Hey, kid."
Paige bit her lip.
"Walter…" He faltered, wondering if he was doing the right thing. Would knowing help Paige heal, or would the pain be worse? Would it be harder to mourn everything she lost or to believe it was never hers to begin with?
Cabe, if this thing doesn't work then you need to tell her.
He swallowed. "Walter wanted you to know that he was sorry. And that he was wrong to react the way he did." Paige turned her gaze to him, looking hollow enough to shatter into pieces. "He loved you. So much. You and Ralph were his entire world. And it should be him telling you that. I wish it was. But that doesn't make it any less true."
Paige's fingers curled into her bare legs, small crescent-shaped indentations marking the path of her nails. A shaky breath escaped her lips. "I was s-so mad when he fired me and I don't...I don't know why I didn't fight, why I didn't tell him…" Her blank expression cracked, crumbling like something had snapped inside her. Cabe slid his arms around her, pulling her tight against him as sobs wracked her body. "I don't know what to do now."
"I know," he whispered, placing a kiss to her head as he rocked her. "I know."