SEASON 2 SPOILER!
Okay I know we have a few spoilers saying Paige will be pretty aggressive with Walter but I kinda just concentrated on the whole "THERE WAS A CAMERA RECORDING THEIR KISS" spoiler and ran with it. Obviously, I am bummed about the following spoiler that states they hash it out and decide to stay friends, though I totally understand not wanting to rush things. In the meantime though, there is always fan fiction ;)
Walter had been released from the hospital 3 weeks ago and things were just starting to settle back into a familiar rhythm. Cabe still came to visit, though just as a friend as he tried to figure out his next move since quitting Homeland. Happy and Toby still bickered like crazy but seem to have reached some sort of stalemate. Even Sylvester seemed happier than usual since Megan seemed to be doing a little better recently. They only thing that wasn't quite back to normal was Paige.
Walter had expected things to be a little off considering all the things that had happened between them and all that was said. He would think things were fine and then Paige would do something odd like jump when he accidentally brushed past her, or laugh nervously when someone mentioned anything about the hospital or his accident. Walter may not be very good at understanding emotional states or reactions but he was still perceptive enough to notice them, even if he didn't comprehend the cause.
Walter had been thinking back to his time in the hospital after his accident, trying to figure out what might have Paige so off. Admittedly the first night was very fuzzy because of the blood loss and drugs. Cataloguing the other 5 days he spent at the hospital though didn't turn up anything that was particularly unusual. Certainly nothing that warranted Paige's uneasiness. He had considered that maybe it was just a bi-product of the crazy couple of days that had her watch her son almost die, quit her job, decide to move to another state, watch him dangle on the side of a cliff and then decided to stay. Especially since all of it basically happened within a 24 hour period. Even still though, it seemed like there was something in particular that made her uneasy and Walter was determined to find out what.
Just when Walter had decided that he would just go to her place and talk, as much as he loathed emotionally charged conversations, he remembered one small detail from his hospital stay; the small black dome on the ceiling. He could just check the tape. Yes, technically it was illegal to hack a hospital's surveillance but if it was to watch himself and the people who visited him, was it really that bad?
Walter gingerly got up from the couch and crossed over to his computer. He generally hid any twinges of pain he still felt while the team were around but since they had all gone home for the night, he indulged himself a grimace and a groan when he twisted the wrong way, straining against the still fresh scar across his back.
Of course it didn't take long to hack the hospital mainframe and access the security footage. He found the time and date where he was first wheeled into his room after surgery and watched the sped up frames for anything. He watched as the entire team filed into his room, an event he remembered but was still very vague. He couldn't resist pressing play to reduce that moment Paige had told him she wasn't leaving to normal speed so he could experience it one more time. In that moment, even though Walter's entire world had just collapsed around him and he had almost died, he realised that it might be okay after all.
He hit the fast forward button again to continue scanning when he saw the nurse administer his pain medication, knowing he was dead asleep and there was nothing to see. Walter had to immediately hit the play button again though, when Paige returned to his room, this time by herself. He watched as a barely illuminated Paige walked slowly around to the side of the bed where he slept. She had her arms crossed, gripping them tightly to her sides; something Walter knew she only did when she was nervous.
He suddenly became very annoyed that the security camera didn't record audio because he could tell Paige was talking but he couldn't tell what she was saying. He was so curious he briefly considered running a lip-reading algorithm but he knew the lighting and video quality wouldn't allow it. Walter also couldn't help but ask himself why she was even talking to him in the first place. Paige wasn't always the most logical or rational person, tending to follow her emotions over reason, but surely even she knew that there was no way he could hear her?
Walter's breath caught as he watched Paige look back towards the door nervously, as though checking they were alone, and leaned down impossibly close to him. He continued to watch with shock as Paige pressed a kiss to his unconscious lips, lingering afterwards to look at him and whisper something.
Every nerve ending in Walter's body was on high alert and his limbs felt heavy and frozen in place. He watched as Paige raised her hand to trace his face while he slept, smiling softly down at him. With one final brush of her thumb over his lips and she pulled away, pulling up a chair to his bedside so she could keep her hand on his as she leant back into the chair.
Walter watched the tape for another 10 minutes, checking that nothing else had happened afterwards but it seemed that Paige had just stayed there in that chair for hours, eventually falling asleep with her head resting on the side of the bed. It wasn't until a nurse came to check his stats hours later that Paige stirred and nervously withdrew her hand and pushed her chair away from his bed. And just like that she had put up the distance he was still seeing and he never knew what had happened, still in deep drug-induced unconsciousness.
He re-wound the video another three time to watch the moment Paige kissed him before he actually managed to begin processing it. Before he really had a chance to figure out what to do, Walter had grabbed his keys and rushed out to his old Datsun now that he was decidedly without a Ferrari to drive.
With the virtually non-existent late night traffic, it took exactly 16 minutes for Walter to get to Paige's condo and begin banging loudly on her door. He was aware he wasn't acting rationally, driving across town to literally bang down Paige's door, but he didn't care. It took Paige 47 seconds (Walter counted) to answer the door as he banged on it incessantly. She wore flannel pyjamas and a wide, worried stare.
"Walter?" Paige asked, concern and confusion tinging her voice and creasing her brow. "Walter, what's wrong?"
"I watched the tape, Paige. I know." Walter said in a rush, his hands twitching nervously and his heart pounding in his ears.
"What tape? Know what? Walter you're scaring me." Paige whispered, clearly trying to keep her voice down because Ralph was asleep.
"At the hospital." Walter hissed. "Why did you do it?"
Walter watched as all the colour drained from Paige's face and her lips parted in a shocked gasp.
"Walter, I… I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to upset you." Paige explained in a rush, her eyes beginning to well as nervousness and emotions she had been suppressing for weeks bubbled to the surface. "I don't know why I did it. It just happened, I'm so sorry."
"There has to be a reason!" Walter pressed his eyes wide and slightly frantic.
"I don't know, Walter!" Paige cried, forgetting all about her sleeping son. "You nearly died, and then you were going to say something on that cliff. When I told you I wasn't going to Portland you were so happy, and I was happy and… I don't know, Walter!"
Paige caught herself, stopping her hysteric ramblings and raking her shaking hand through her hair.
"Why did you do it when I was unconscious?" Walter asked, his tone softening slightly in the face of Paige's distress.
"I don't know. I got caught in the moment and I knew it probably wasn't something you wanted and it all just came spilling out."
"But you never asked me!" Walter hissed, his agitation returning. "I was unconscious and you never even gave me the option to consider if it was something I wanted, much less something I might have wanted to remember!"
"Walter I don't understand. I…" Paige stammered but she was quickly cut off.
Walter rushed forward, pulling her close as his lips crashed onto hers with more urgency and passion than she would have ever expected from him. Paige responded quickly, her hands wrapping around his neck as Walter's hands firmly gripped her back to pull her closer. When he pulled his lips away, his arms didn't drop and kept her just as close.
"When I was stuck in that car and they couldn't find you all I could think about was telling you… Telling you that I was wrong. That it wasn't junk science and that even though I would probably screw it up, I wanted something with you. Now I find out that the first time you kissed me I was unconscious as will never remember it!" Walter whispered, though his agitation was still very clear.
"It makes me confused and happy and upset… and angry! All at the same time!" Walter whispered, his lips still so close to Paige's that the almost grazed as he spoke.
"I know, I'm sorry Walter." Paige apologised, her hands gripping the lapel of his coat to pull him closer. "I never even thought out that, I swear it just happened. I'm sorry."
Walter hugged her close, letting go a deep sigh as he tried to compose himself.
"Wait." Walter said softly, pulling back so he could look her in the eye again. "Are you sorry it happened at all or because…"
"I'm sorry I did it while you were unconscious. That you didn't get a say and that you don't remember it." Paige assured him. "I'm not sorry that I kissed you."
Walter eyes raked over her face, reading her and processing everything as fast as his huge intellect but stunted EQ could. Eventually he couldn't help but smile. It was messy and complicated and imperfect but he knew Paige cared about him the way he did for her and that was enough.
"I will remember this." Walter growled as he reclaimed her lips as a soft giggle passed over them.