I have been trying to write this and the next chapter of Failure for several days now, but real life keeps thwarting me. But I got a new job (yay!) so that's one huge weight off my shoulders. Hopefully that translates to more reading and writing.
"Oh. I didn't know you were still here."
Her presence made him still temporarily at the bottom of the stairs. It was…odd to see Paige at her desk again. There was a strange sense of regularity, like she'd never left at all. But she had. Walter couldn't forget the eighty-four days he spent watching that empty desk, willing himself to move it somewhere more useful but failing to actually budge.
She nodded, extending a stack of papers in his direction. "Just finishing up the Boyton proposal. I need you to sign off on these terms. The rest of the team already did."
Walter blinked a few times before taking the documents from her hand. An equal share. In everything. That was the only way to get Scorpion back together. There were plenty of times when his inability to make a unilateral decision was frustrating and inconvenient, but it was better to be a fraction of something than the leader of nothing.
"Okay." The genius looked around, fruitlessly hoping to spot another member of the team. He knew Paige stayed late sometimes, especially now that she understood what it took to run a company, even briefly. But he remained in the loft on those nights. Just because she returned to the team—begrudgingly, after a lot of cajoling from the rest of Centipede—didn't mean she had any desire to be alone with him. "I just came down to, uh, grab a book. I'll leave you to it."
"Wait," Paige murmured, finally glancing up from her laptop. She stood, crossing around her desk and craning her neck. "Let me look at your head."
"Toby already examined it. I'm fine."
"That was twelve hours ago. I just want to make sure it's healing."
Walter stifled a protest, well aware that arguing was fruitless. He'd gotten used to Paige stitching him up over the years, and he almost grew to enjoy it when they were together, because he didn't have to waste so much effort hiding his reactions to her touch. But he was back to pretending and it was a highly illogical use of his faculties.
Paige disappeared for a moment, the faucet running briefly as she washed her hands, and returned with the first aid kit. Walter flinched as she gently peeled back the bandage on his forehead, more from the initial contact of her fingers than the sting of its removal. "It's not bad. Just needs to be cleaned. You were lucky."
Dodging the spinning blade before he sustained a more significant injury than a graze wasn't luck, but that didn't really seem pertinent when she meant at least you still have a head. "I'll clean it upstairs."
Paige rolled her eyes, her hands already busy with the towel and saline solution. "Just stand still, you big baby." She stepped closer, raising slightly on her toes as she dabbed the laceration. He was perfectly capable of doing this on his own, but Paige did have a talent for minimizing the bruises and scarring that followed his injuries. Apparently waitressing had been a much more dangerous profession than he realized.
Her thumb brushed incidentally against his cheek and Walter clenched his jaw, focusing on taking steady breaths through his nose. It was preposterous to fall apart because of a friendly gesture, and if Paige noticed, he couldn't imagine how quickly she would make an excuse to leave. This…these feelings…were one-sided now, and he needed to keep his side in check.
She would be done soon. Walter's eyes slipped shut almost involuntarily, blocking out at least a sliver of the unwelcome stimuli. The scent of her lotion and the heat radiating from her body were enough measure of her proximity. He didn't need the added challenge of figuring out where to look without making her uncomfortable.
Paige smoothed a fresh bandage over the wound, pressing it into place. Walter opened his eyes, a long second passing before he registered that she hadn't moved her hand away.
Her fingers lingered on his skin, tracing the bottom edge of the dressing. The genius wracked his brain to find a medical reason for their current position, but those thoughts evaporated when she lifted her head. He knew those eyes. Wide, searching, pupils dilated. And those lips, too, slightly parted and flushed. He knew what it meant.
Walter was less sure if she'd acted on those signals or if he took his knowledge of their previous encounters and ran with it. Suddenly she was kissing him soundly and her familiar curves were pressed against him and he couldn't remember who moved first.
Blood rushed from his head as her lips met his fiercely, a frustrated groan catching in her throat. His fingers flexed into her hips, stabilizing her as she fumbled with his buttons, breaking the kiss only to gasp for breath. She smirked triumphantly as she wrestled the shirt open, working it over his shoulders and letting it drop to the floor.
He had to be dreaming. Real Life Paige didn't want him anymore. Not like this.
She slipped her hands beneath his undershirt, his muscles immediately tightening everywhere she touched. Her mouth moved lower and Walter tipped his head, groaning as she swept her tongue over a sensitive spot on his neck.
If this was a dream, there was no point in wasting it. Walter broke away, deftly working her shirt over her head before drawing her face back to his. Her fingers curled in his hair, nails grazing his scalp, and he lifted her the short distance onto her desk, her legs wrapping around his hips to keep him in place. He slowed the kiss, trying to commit every detail to memory. He'd taken it for granted before. Assumed he would always have her just like this. He wouldn't make that mistake again.
Paige reached between them, unfastening his belt and pants. He worked his clothes to his feet, kicking them aside, glad to be free of anything that separated them. They discarded the last of their clothing in a well-practiced rhythm before Paige moved back, tugging Walter's arms to bring him up with her.
When he bought the desks, he hadn't been considering their ability to hold the weight of two people, but that seemed like a crucial benefit now. Walter settled on top of her, her legs coming around him again, and Paige clung tightly to him as he pushed into her.
He groaned her name, burying his head in her neck as instinct took over and he thrust deeply, setting a pace that wasn't nearly as slow as they usually started. But this wasn't a night he'd planned, where he could take his time with her. This was desperate and he was already painfully close and he could wake up from this fantasy at any moment. Metal clanged on the floor as they knocked the first aid supplies off the desk, along with whatever else Paige had bothered to arrange. Perhaps it was for the best that she hadn't taken the time to set up any important personal items at her workstation.
Everything around him blurred for a few minutes until Paige whimpered, shivering in his arms. He followed quickly, so much energy flooding his body he felt like the lightest touch could split him apart.
"Oh my god," Paige muttered under her breath, disentangling herself and sliding out from under him almost before he'd come back. She grabbed her clothes off the floor, making quick work of her bra and underwear and handing Walter's boxers to him.
"Paige." She ignored him, righting her inside-out shirt as he redressed with her. He had no desire to be the only nude person in the room. "Y-You don't have to go."
"This was a mistake," she said, refusing to look at him. Paige wiggled back into her jeans, combing her messy hair with her fingers. It wasn't the first time they'd been forced to make themselves presentable after a quick tryst, but they were alone. There was no rush. She was running. "I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I-I wasn't. That was just dumb and impulsive." Paige swallowed, shaking her head. "I'm still on my birth control. We're okay. We can…w-we can just forget this happened."
"Paige," he repeated, willing his head to clear faster so he could say something, anything else. She finished zipping her boots and went to retrieve her bag, but Walter's hand latched onto her arm. "Paige, stop."
She finally came to a halt, shutting her eyes. She was trembling slightly under his fingers and he let go, not wanting her to feel cornered. "Walter, I can't do this again."
"And I can?" He took a step back, his mind too clouded by her closeness. "Y-You think it's easy for me to be with you and then watch you leave again? Y-You can't just…" The genius exhaled, running his hands through his hair. "You can't just come in and out of my life when you feel like it. I d-don't know how to handle that."
Paige bit her lip, shrugging. She looked close to tears. "I'm sorry, Walter. I don't know how to handle all of this either. But what we just did doesn't fix anything. You know it doesn't."
"B-But we could. Or we could at least talk about it." He hated how pleading his voice sounded. Part of him wanted her to leave, give him space to process and lick his wounds. But he hadn't fought hard enough to fix things last time. He didn't want to regret that again. "Yes, okay, I know this wasn't smart. But pretending has never worked for us. I-If…" Walter reached out tentatively, relaxing when she didn't yank her hand away from his. "I can be better, Paige. If you're willing t-to be more patient with me. I know you were unhappy, but I believe that I could—."
"I wasn't unhappy," she interrupted, closing her eyes again. He let the rest of his sentence die out in his throat, surprised by her confession. How could she not mean those things? They were the same quirks that drove everyone else in his life away. "God, Walter, I know what I said. But I was happy. With you. I just couldn't handle being your second choice."
"You weren't!" Walter said a little too abruptly, wincing at his own eagerness. "Paige, I know where I went wrong. It won't happen next time. I can be honest with you. I can do everything differently."
"Walter." She squeezed his hand, a sure sign that he was rambling. He went quiet, waiting for Paige to speak. "I made mistakes too," she admitted, her voice cracking as her eyes filled with emotion. "And I don't know how to fix them. I don't know if we can be fixed."
Of course we can. We're supposed to be together. But if he was really being transparent, the truth was that he didn't know any more than she did. Maybe the damage was done. Maybe it wasn't. He couldn't give up on them until he knew for sure. "J-Just stay tonight. To talk. That's all I'm asking."
Paige didn't respond for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever. And then she nodded, that one small gesture overwhelming Walter with relief. "Okay. Let's talk."