About the cancelling... I am not ready to move on. Nothing else to say. So here it is. The title of the story you will just understand on later chapters. I have no idea how many chapters this will get, perhaps just this one (?) that's on you guys. You tell me what I should do. I just want to fix this without so many angst, cause many writers here are already doing this for us (thank you, for the record). I want to do it with some fun, guess I need it more than anyone.
Well... i've been working on this since the cancellation. It took me so long to post due to my lovely university that keeps throwing tests on me. Whatever.. it's focused on Waige, but it will involve the entire team, okay? So here we go.
XX
Paige shivered on her bed as she recalled the smooth touch of his lips sliding onto her neck, exactly in that way he used to wake her up when they're getting late for some random case. Paige couldn't help but ruminate how much Walter used to be so shy at the beginning of their intimacy, and how it didn't take him so long for starting to do more physical contact with all her body during the months. Suddenly the genius was so drowned into her presence on his previous personal and unreachable space that he hasn't even realized how much a fan of contact he had turned out to be. He used to touch her a lot after the adaption phase. Touch her in a way no man had ever done. He was careful, attentive, delicate. He made her feel like a potential precious pearl. He made her recognize the value she didn't know she still had after everything she had gone through in the past. And now... she was on her bed. Just alone.
Relationships are messy, that's their nature...
Her memory wasn't cooperating to her morning reflection. First she had another stupid dream about him, and now some so small but so significant conversations they once had were rising up all the time. Geez, why can't Walter just leave her alone?
Paige shook her head. Walter hadn't any real fault on her morning disturb. And perhaps neither on their current situation. It wasn't just a few times that Paige questioned herself if everything that happened that night was strictly necessary. She hated herself for allowing things to get so far. She and Walter were doing so well before all of this happens. They had had some issues, but they were genuinely fine after all. She was happy, he was happy. Paige could easily remember that. They were having family dinners. Later talking on the phone. Cuddling (and other stuff) on bed. Having fun together. Discussing even science together. They were still sharing looks only they could understand the meaning. They were still saying "I love you" and giving sweet kisses before leaving. They weren't definitely in a bad time for the relationship. They were just fine. Things shouldn't have gotten so out of control.
After all, Paige couldn't understand why everything turned out so badly. Her insecurities certainly interfered on her reaction at the moment, but it was senseless on her mind why she still kept so mad about it weeks later. It seemed like her brain knew she was overreacting, but meantime, her heart wasn't willing to let go the hurting yet. Therefore, already conflicted and frustrated with herself, and not thrilled to get any more of it, Paige set up on the bed and started to dig on papers from her work with Centipede for the day.
Restless, she couldn't focus. So, making one more of the impulsive decisions she was making lately, the ex-waitress texted Sly for warning her team she would be late that morning. Then, Paige quickly got dressed and headed herself to get a hot cup of coffee from Kovelsky's. It was now her time to escape a bit from this messed up reality.
XX
Struggling to pick a table where she and Walter had never sat together before, she gave up after a half glance around. This was ridiculous. It didn't matter where she would sit. She was fine.
Paige, so, stepped closer to a small table at the corner of the place and finally adjusted herself on the chair. After the first sip of coffee slipped through her throat, she felt better.
Staring at nowhere while enjoying her hot drink was how the woman stayed at Kovelsky's for several minutes. Her thoughts flying freely, her body moving almost unconsciously. She was just trying to find some peace. It was definitely not on her plans to be surprised by someone else that morning.
"Paige." The voice spoke with firmness. It took her neither a second for recognizing it.
"Oh, God, Walter." The ex-waitress rested her hand on her chest, startled at the sudden appearance. The genius had already sat in the other side of the table when she continued: "What are you doing here?"
"Look, I'm aware of how pissed you are at me. But you know what? I don't care. I need your help and you are gonna listen to me." He said fast as if he had planned and rehearsed for this line many times before.
"Ahm... how did you know I was here?" Raising her eyebrows, she could swear Walter blushed a little.
He shook his head, trying to stall. "Just a... coincidence."
"Oh, yeah." Paige sighed. "Let's pretend I don't know you and your particular ways to always find out about anything you wanna know from this world."
Her harsh tone was just a way to hide the conflict rising up inside her mind again.
"I'm talking seriously, Paige. I quit fighting with you. Please set aside your anger and do this for me too." His expression was mixed. Anxious, worried, confused.
I don't want there to be anything between us. Dammit, she thought.
"What do you want, Walter?" If he were just a little less attentive, he would never notice the slight softening her voice took this time.
"I... well, first I wanna say something." Walter scratched his head, processing. His eyes glanced away from hers.
"You can say it." The woman let out a breath, seeming soft now. Something inside her wished they could talk normal again as well.
Silence. He was trying to formulate his words. She knew he needed his time. She had always waited calmly until he was ready, it wasn't any different now.
"Ahm, okay. Well... Paige, I am going through a lot of tough things lately. And the thing is, I am not capable of handling so much of this all by myself." He took a deep breath. "I understood your point when you made very clear to me that we might never work out as a couple. But..." then he came back looking at her. "We have already worked out at least as friends before. And... I sort of miss my friend Paige. I hate saying that, but it's true. I miss our friendship. Our conversations. I need you, your support. Please, I need my best friend back. Do this for me. For us. I hate the distance between us." He concluded, scared as hell of her reaction. The woman stared at him for a few seconds, surprised by the statement.
"How do you suppose we can be just friends after all that happened between us, Walter?" Paige sighed after a while. Things were so far from simple, and the genius may totally don't see it.
"Well, it doesn't look so hard. We just have to separate things efficiently." He frowned. The woman shook her head.
"I don't find it as easy as you are saying so. It's not just separate. It's not just rational. This is emotional, and emotions are not solved like that. I can't pretend there was never something intense between us." She pointed, keeping her patience.
"Oh, me neither. I don't want you to forget that. We went through intense months and it didn't turn out fine, now I just don't want us to never look at each other's face anymore. It doesn't make sense. This is killing me. Tell me it isn't killing you and I leave." Who could ever have guessed Walter could be so good at arguing about emotions? Paige was totally caught by surprise again.
Plus, after that, she had zero strength for lying.
"Despite my anger... yes, Walter, of course it's killing me." The ex-waitress acknowledged, bringing the fact for the first time out loud.
"And in a zero to ten scales, how is your anger doing right now?" He asked with a small of excitement on the eyes. There was still hope.
"I-I don't know." Her heartbeat accelerated. "Maybe three?"
"Good. That feels lovely to hear." He joked, making her roll her eyes. "Now, what's weighting more? The anger or the distance?"
"Okay, O'Brien, I got it. Yes, perhaps it wouldn't hurt if we be friends again. I miss my best friend too." The admission came out quickly from her mouth, followed by her look lowering down to the coffee. Neither herself could believe she said it.
"Paige, we both had our parts at this, so we can both save our friendship as well." He kept swinging his whole posture side to side, pretty restless.
"It's okay, I guess. Maybe it's gonna take some time for me to get used to it, okay?" She warned. She really wanted to make her anger disappear like magic, but there was no such thing.
"Meanwhile, we could talk about something. As friends." He emphasized, handing up his hand for a high-five. Paige frowned, slapping it awkwardly.
"I don't mean minutes, Walter." She slid her bottom lip under her teeth, starting to shake her legs anxiously.
"Oh. That's okay." He processed, seeming baffled. "Do you want me to leave, then?" Walter tried to hide his baffled and disappointed face.
As soon as Paige noticed his reaction, she sighed. After all, a small talk in a Kovelsky's table couldn't be so bad. "Know what? Why don't you tell me about what's bothering you?" She offered, and her body warmed completely by seeing a shining expression rising up again on him. Some voice deep inside her consciousness told her this 'friends' thing was not supposed to work out, but suddenly she desperately wanted to figure it out all by herself.
"Well... if you say so..." he shrugged, making a pause. "I need help. W-with Florence."
"Oh, seriously?" Paige then felt as if a bottle of cold water had fallen all over her head. Was he playing with her feelings? She had innocently let him in again, now he was trying to make revenge?
"No, it's not what you're thinking! I promise you." He hurried with an explanation, catching her hands above the table in order to transmit confidence. As much as his touch felt reassuring, Paige couldn't let Walter to mix things, he was the one that said 'friends' in the first place. So, she quickly pulled back her hands to her lap. Walter got stunned, but continued speaking for masking it. "I mean, she is chasing me. It's no new for you that I have zero romantic interest for her. But when I invited her to join my new team, she understood everything wrong. She is thinking I'm on her. Now she can't stop stalking me everywhere I go, and it's driving me nuts." Walter made his point. "I want tell her to back off, but I have no idea how should I do this without being a jerk." When he let out a breath as finished, Paige bit her lip.
"And you wanted my help?" She had no clue of which face she was supposed to make.
"Yeah, you know, you were the one that helped me before with all the relationships I had." Walter ran his hand through his head. This was getting weirder each second.
"It was before I was the one to have a relationship with you. And for the record, I hated being your dating consultant. I was always jealous." Paige crossed her arms. Walter tried to read her body language, but he couldn't be sure if she was really denying help or just playing hard, as she always enjoyed doing.
"So this is not too different as before." he smiled playfully, rising his eyebrows in the expectation of figuring out her mood. Paige couldn't tell where his whole sense of humor for today came from. Although, she couldn't help letting out a small laugh.
"You really don't have any idea of how awkward this is, do you?" She tried to suppress the smile.
"Actually, not exactly." He seemed confused.
"Doesn't matter. I'll help you anyway." She stated. The air between them was becoming more pleasant.
"Will you?" He smiled surprised. She had been just playing hard after all.
"Yeah, but just for the record, this is actually way different from before, cause I have no reasons to be jealous anymore." The ex-waitress pointed, now struggling to sound serious. Walter stared at her for a couple of seconds. Both were thinking the same thing, and both deciding not to say it out loud.
"If you say so." He nodded.
"Now, let's teach you the art of dumping someone without being a moron." She rested her arms in the table.
"Are you sure do you know anything about that?" He asked, remembering the way she'd dumped him. Paige's eyes widened. When she seemed to have no idea of what to say, Walter broke out laughing. "Just kidding, just kidding!"
"Well," she shook her head after a couple of seconds, kinda baffled. "You are being too comical today, don't you think?"
"You just did a wrong choice of words. The joke was stronger than me." Walter justified himself, breathing to recover air.
"Not funny." She stated blushed, slapping his forearm above the table.
"I'm sorry." He suppressed a grin.
"I guess I was the one that should be saying this." Still embarrassed, the woman tried to hide a smile too.
"It's okay, we're over it. You can continue now." He rested his back at the cushioned sit, staring playfully at her mixed expression.
"I'll just delete this last part of our conversation from my mind." She pointed almost in a whisper, adjusting her position. She looked at his face and sighed briefly before starting to speak. "Walter, you need to be honest with her about your feelings. But... you also must, once and for all, learn the difference between honesty and rudeness in the first place."
"Ahm… maybe that's my problem."
"Maybe? Why am I so sure about it?" it was her turn to play with him, which he quickly picked up with a small grin. "Now, seriously. Keep this in mind: you'll break her heart anyway, you cannot avoid that, but what you can surely do is not smashing it into pieces. Be nice, you know? Just put across your ideas as if she doesn't have any hit of fault about the way you feel. Tell her you enjoy her fellowship as a friend and colleague and..." Friends slash colleagues. Paige felt sick. "and... that you appreciate her work for Scorpion, but you don't like her romantically. Explain your reasons, whatever they might be."
"It sounds much simpler than it is." He bit his lips, sighing.
"I assure you, you have enough EQ for doing it." She encouraged him, remembering the disaster of calling his EQ close to fifteen. She wished she could apologize for everything, but it didn't felt as the right time. "Don't... don't say she is bothering you or something like that. Just tell her you didn't want her to feel bad, but you figured the sooner she knew about the true, the less it would hurt." the woman paused, wishing he couldn't pick up the double meaning of her speech. "Tell her you don't wanna give her false hopes. And let her figure out the rest by herself, there's no need to tell her to back off, this would be… mean. She will do it, at her time. And watch your voice tone. She is not like me so she will probably don't yell at you if you keep a soft one." Paige grinned in the end, in order to ease the light strangeness formed. If he had decided to talk open and naturally about their broke up, so would she. As a matter of fact, it was certainly a big deal for Walter to be handling it so... maturely. As if he was truly over it. And Paige, on the other hand, had no idea if this was supposed to be good or bad to her.
"Oh, c'mon, it's impossible for anyone to reach you up at this subject." He teased back, making her open her mouth indignantly.
"You are so far-fetched!" She exclaimed, while feeling a relief about he keeping his good mood despite her full-of-ambiguity advice. Perhaps he hadn't picked up. Perhaps he was, indeed, completely over them.
"I just state facts, remember?" He made his know-it-all face, making her roll the eyes.
"I hate you, O'Brien." Paige was opening a smile. "I'm here, giving you advices, and you keep mocking me!"
"But you started this time!" It was his turn to have indignation.
"Shhhh, focus at Florence." She tried to disguise.
"What a smart girl you are, huh?" He shook his head, teasing again. "You know, I still think she will be mad." Walter made a face, and Paige took a few seconds to realize he really came back to the Florence subject.
"Well, we can't control people's reaction, Walter... Just make sure that at least you've done your part right, okay?" Paige crossed her arms. He had a strange look, and Paige assumed he was thinking. However, what she got was...
"Should I get worried about you planning to break down my company by setting Florence aside?" He questioned, but far away from seriously.
"Walter!" The woman threw a napkin at him, and now she was giggling.
"What? We never know!" he couldn't stand with his serious expression for so long, beginning to giggle with her.
I could never get bored of you.
Another memory. And worst thing about it was that, truth be told, right now it didn't look like she had ever been pissed at him. They were there, laughing together, making jokes, and Paige realized how such a long time it had been since the last time she felt so great. She had totally forgotten of how big was his ability to make her laugh and how comfortable she could be around him. This entire time being so distant... she had had no clue anymore of how much he could make the difference in her day. In her mood. In her whole world.
"That's not fair." She slowly stopped to laugh, recovering her air.
"What's not fair?" He did the same, resting his arms on the table. When Paige copied his move, their hands were resting with just a tiny space between them. Paige wanted so much to reach his over, but she chose to educated herself with some self-control.
"I thought it would take me some time to get used with a friendship between us after all we've been through. But suddenly I'm feeling so... comfortable and peaceful. It's funny cause I wasn't considering any of this by the time I woke up today." She looked away while tapping the table with her fingers, as Walter watched the small empty space between their hands.
"Well, I… I had faith that... even if we lose everything else, this would never get lost. Our... chemistry. You know, a-as friends." he kept staring at the hands as he turned anxious, worried that Paige would misunderstand his words.
"I got it, Walt." She reassured him instead. "I guess I just needed a small push."
"Yeah, I mean, it was all so fast that night, I like to think that... in a way, we've never really stopped being friends after all." He pulled back his hands to his own lap before having the chance to do something he wasn't supposed to. His fingers were eager to touch hers. It has been so long...
"This is actually a sweet way to see it." She smiled, and Walter could swear she was acting shy. She didn't use to do that a lot, but he remembered how he used to love seeing her timidity about something he'd said. "In this last month, I let my anger drown me completely. I wish I could have seen things this way since the beginning."
"Let's just leave it behind us." Walter didn't know exactly what to say, so he tried a half-smile.
"Yeah. I'm glad we had this conversation. Thank you." Paige pressed her lips together.
"Even with the awkwardness?"
She giggled again. "Kinda used to it." The woman twisted her nose playfully. Walter also used to love her facial expressions.
He sighed. "You don't seem to get used completely." He frowned lightly, advancing in a subject Paige knew they would come through soon or later. She sighed too.
"Yeah, you're right. But that's the funny part. How would you guys surprise me otherwise?" She bit her lips. Deep down, she was trying to fix the damage she'd caused inside him.
"So you don't..."
"I don't." She confirmed even though he hadn't finished his sentence. It wasn't necessary. She knew that look at his eyes. No, she doesn't find him boring. She never did. "By the way, it was very EQ of you to show up and start this talk with me. I... well, maybe you are not an emotion teenager after all." she was clumsy with her words. She really wanted him to understand that. "I've always known that. Sorry about what I said."
"We're okay now, don't worry, Paige. We are just as before, back to normal. Friends again." Walter concluded, but the woman was so affected by his words that she didn't notice Walter didn't seem thrilled about it neither.
You are the love of my life.
You are the love of my life, too.
Paige closed her eyes. Her hormones were definitely not helping. Boy, this would be harder than she'd thought.
"Yeah. Back to normal." She opened them again and took a deep breath, feeling suddenly hot.
Friends. Not loves of each other lives anymore. Get used to it, Dineen.
"Are you okay?"
"Ah-ahm, yeah, of course. I just... you know, it's getting late and the guys are waiting for me." The ex-waitress looked at her watch, still kinda baffled.
"Yeah, we probably should go. I need to talk to Florence as soon as I get in the garage." Walter shook his head.
"You can do this. Tell me later how it turned out." The woman reached his arm and stroked it. Walter felt his heartbeat accelerate.
"I'll call you." He was happy by her request. "Let's go."
The two of them were walking side by side towards the entering glass door. When they reached the street, they turned to face each other in the same time.
"So… Ralph is staying at the garage this weekend, right?" she said the first thing that came up in her mind, just in order to stall. She didn't want to leave.
"Yeah, I've… planned some real cool stuff for him." He laughed slightly, hands in the pocket, eyes at the ground.
"Good." Paige ran his eyes through his whole body. Separate things, Paige. Separate.
"So, friend…" the man scratched his head. "Wanna watch a movie any time soon?" he finally glanced at her eyes.
Paige grinned.
"Y-yeah, of course. Why not?" she bit her lips with certain strength. She was nervous.
"Good." He smiled too. "So, I see you."
"See you." Then, they both stepped closer to each other to say goodbye properly. However, almost involuntarily, just by force of habit, Paige's hands headed directly to his cheeks, and Walter's directed themselves rightly to her waist. Perhaps his face also got a little closer, just as if he was going to give her these goodbye kisses. Unfortunately, they both realized their moves before they could touch each other, and then they both froze. Paige sighed and backed off, followed by him. Both embarrassed, they couldn't look at each other's eyes.
"Bye, Walter." She spoke first, cause despite her embarrassing she knew he was probably worse inside. So, in order to show him this was not a big deal, she stepped closer and kissed his cheek, without any other touch beside this one. They should get used to it.
"Bye, Paige." He smiled shyly. She did the same just before turning around and following the opposite direction from his.
Yeah, perhaps he had moved on. Perhaps not yet. It shouldn't matter. They were going to be just friends, and Paige was pretty happy for that. They were never good as lovers anyway, she thought. This was the best they could do.
Right?
XX
So... should i leave this as an one-shot or continue it? I have the entire story planned. So you decide! Review it if you can, I'll be grateful.