BURNING ADMISSIONS

Chapter 1

Walter was managing a piece of metal on the table in front of his rocket; he worked hard on it lately. The deadline of the contest was scheduled for next month and, as a consequence of the cases that the team had to solve and his rehabilitation, he couldn't spend as much time as he would on the project. He was absorbed in his thoughts when he heard Paige calling his name. The genius didn't know why she insisted on working late in the last few months, but after his nearly dead experience, she was more protective toward him and even if he would have never admitted, he secretly liked it very much. However the tension between them increased exponentially in those weeks and every time there was a physical contact involved, it usually ended up with one of them apologizing to the other, if not blushing shamelessly.

"Paige, do you need anything? You'd supposed to be at home with Ralph" he asked while she approached his workspace. She looked relaxed.

"Yes, in fact I'm here for that. I'm heading home right now." She gave him a shy smile.

"Okay" he was visibly disappointed. Walter really thought she needed something from him, but apparently it was just a mere goodbye "See you tomorrow then" he smiled her back.

Paige hold his gaze for a while and turned to leave; she came back abruptly and stopped dangerously close to Walter, who immediately froze. Her lavender perfume was strong and her scent relaxed him somehow.

"I think we should talk about… well, everything" she began. They never talk about what happened before his accident, her leaving, him wanting to tell something that he never spoke about again.

"Paige-" he tried but she blocked him shaking her head.

"No, let me explain first. I think we need to discuss the situation we put ourselves in because it's getting unbearable for me."

"I'm sorry" he whispered. Paige was holding his gaze so deeply and Walter implored her with his eyes to never stop. Then she cupped his face and spoke softly.

"Don't. You have no idea how many times I wanted to ask you to tell me what you were going to say on the cliff edge. But I was scared you could put up your walls and shut me out, like you always do when it comes to deal with emotional speech." She bit her lip.

"I…" Walter didn't know what to say, so he tried again "Paige, I…"

"What did you want me to know, Walter?" she begged him for an answer.

Walter lips parted. His brain wasn't functioning anymore, it never entirely did when she was around. The genius wanted to tell her how much he cared about her, but he wasn't sure if she expected more. Paige was her employee and he didn't want to ruin the professional relationship they had, neither their friendship. It was also true that he was very attracted to that woman. After her decision to stay he was over the moon. Walter was glad she changed her mind, so Ralph would have stayed around. In that moment the signals she was giving him screamed "more". And since the genius refused to ever say the word love to anyone he tried something else. Walter had always been ill equipped when it came to deal with emotions and even if he improved since Paige came around it still was un unknown territory. He opted for an action instead.

"Walter?" she asked again, stroking his arm, with a stare that was making him thrill all over again.

Before he could change his mind he ran his fingers thought her hair and pulled her close. Walter leaned on her lips, giving her a chaste kiss. However he didn't pull back immediately and neither did Paige; she deepened the kiss instead, while Walter drew circles on her arms and down her back. He didn't know why he was touching her skin like that but it just felt the right thing to do. Just like when he constantly stroked Ralph's hair when he's around. Toby told him his subconscious had more EQ than when he was awake.
His head started spinning and couldn't figure out why. Then his eyes opened wide as he realized that he was lying in his bed and it was all a dream, well… not exactly everything.

Walter pulled away and find himself catching his breath few inches away from Paige's face. She was real and so the kiss he gave her, there was no turning back from that.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Paige finished to organize her stuff for the next day and put everything in place on her table. Then she grabbed her bag ready to go home to her son. Once again she was late and there was no need to check the clock to know it. It happened a lot lately and, these last few weeks, despite the fact that Paige wanted to be at home at a decent hour, she needed to stay a little longer. The young mother lost count on how many times she thought she needed to talk with Walter. The woman came to realize she couldn't hide her feelings any longer and his constantly change of behavior when she was around told her that he probably felt the same. Walter wasn't acting strange around his friends or Cabe. Paige wanted so bad to tell him how much she cared about him, and doing it preferably when he was awake. However something was pulling her back, might it be his reaction? What if he wasn't ready?

One day she found Toby writing something on a whiteboard and hide it quickly when she went near him. He tried to avoid her questions, but in the end she got him to spit it out. He confessed it was a chart about her and Walter. He was updating it changing the voice interactions with "awkward-actions" to the list of the exchanges that they pair had from the first time they met until tgat very moment. Then Toby started gave her a speech, again. In some way she wasn't pissed at his constantly commenting on them and she was sure that the shrink was even more persistent with Walter.
After all it wouldn't be Toby otherwise.

"Walter? I'm going home! See you tomorrow." She said aloud enough for him to heard her voice, but the genius didn't respond right away and that was odd. Paige climbed the stairs and knocked on the door of his loft. Still no answer.

She found him soundly sleeping in his bed and smiled at his cuteness.

"Paige…" Walter told her name and mumbled something she couldn't distinguish.

She waited in silence unable to decide what to do next. He called her name in his sleep and now she was blushing hard. She literally felt her face on fire and her thoughts danced on the dream, correction, dreams that she made about him. What if he… she couldn't bring herself to think about it and raised her eyebrows in disbelief. Paige turned to leave but he was still mumbling with a frown, so she approached him instead. Once she sat on the edge of his bed, Paige was barely inches away from him. The young woman saw him relaxing.

"Paige-" mumbles "I'm sorry" he said in a clear whisper.

She had no idea what was happening in his dreams but she found herself cupping his face telling him he shouldn't be. Don't. Paige was observing the man before her, the one she fell for and waited.

Suddenly he spoke again. "I… Paige, I…".

"Walter?" she tried to wake him stroking his arm. She didn't succeeded. Instead he ran his finger through her honey hair, causing her to forget how to breath and to follow his movement down. Walter lifted his head up enough to kiss her with his soft lips. Paige let herself be driven by the moment and responded to the genius deepening the kiss.
Paige knew that it was wrong, he was completely asleep and if he woke up in the meantime she was afraid to know how he would have reacted. Being caught in the heat of the moment, she couldn't bring herself to escape this dangerous situation. Their kisses were searing and hot, then wild and wet. They hold each other and kept that connection for a while until both of them needed air and so they parted. She had her eyes close and all she could hear was his heavy breath.

"Paige?" his voice cracked. She immediately opened her eyes and saw Walter watching her confused and scared. "I… Oh, God… I'm sorry" he pulled away and went far as possible from her, leaning on the other side of the bed.

"Walter, it's okay. I wouldn't never let you do it if I didn't want you to." How could I be so stupid? She added to herself.
Walter on the other side stopped functioning, he was still able to taste her kiss and he was clueless on what to do next. It wasn't supposed to happen like that, or ever. He wanted to vanish instantly.

"Walt, look at me" Paige said leaning a hand toward him but then she hadn't go further to touch him. Hesitantly she retracted it and waited for him to respond to her begging.

The genius was shocked and instead of looking at her he just shut his eyes. "It was just a dream. In fact this doesn't mean I feel the same in reality" he lied. He regretted his own words very quickly and, when he finally met her gaze, Walter saw that she was hurt.

"Don't you?" she asked avoiding his look.

He analyzed the situation and as he previously calculated, there was no turning back from his actions. "Maybe I do" he answered after a long pause, his eyes glued on the floor "In… in my dream you asked me what I wanted you know… on th-that cliff edge". Paige locked her eyes on him but this time he was the one trying to avoid the gaze of the other.
"What did you told me, then?" she barely whispered.

"I didn't tell you anything" Walter met her eyes to observe her, examine her reaction. Paige was baffled at first, then she slowly raised her eyebrows finding the answer she was looking for.

"Would you show me again?" she asked unexpectedly.

"Wha-" His lips parted and stared at her "Y-you want me to…"

She firmly nodded biting her lower lip.

Preview for chapter 2 (now available): how far are Walter and Paige going? What will happen next?

(Edited) Let me know what you think in the reviews! Thank you for reading and if you have any suggestion let me know.