Happy Scorpion Monday! Here's a pretty short update, the rest of the chapters will be longer. If everything goes according to my outline, expect about ten chapters total. Thanks for reading!
Walter was remembering.
He had to be. There was no other explanation.
It started when Ralph claimed that a newly-discovered planet was one of the "most scientifically interesting" finds of the decade, and Walter's eyes immediately flew up to meet hers.
The next week, he told her he had a "surprise" for her before handing her a container of Chinese takeout that she'd been too lost in paperwork to notice he ordered.
Then it was the case, when she'd been trapped and scared, and Walter had arrived just in time. He yelled above the machinery for her to take his hand and Paige should have been too preoccupied to notice the flash in his eyes, but she wasn't.
He'd saved her life countless times that way. Maybe she was just reading into things that weren't there. But his reaction had been so obvious and visceral that Paige refused to accept she was imagining it.
Walter couldn't have remembered everything, though. If he'd remembered her professing love for him, promising they could be together once he was safe, he would hate her. And he didn't.
Paige had been close, terrifyingly close to telling him outside the restaurant. But she'd chickened out, just like she was chickening out now. She wasn't ready to hurt him. Not when they were so close to…
No. It was because they were edging toward something more that she needed to tell him. He would retreat. He'd feel betrayed. To postpone that was selfish, and would only hurt more if they were together.
She would explain everything after the wedding. Limit the impact of the carnage on Happy and Toby while they were celebrating the happiest time of their lives. If—when—it all went to hell, she could give Walter the space he needed. But god, what would she even say to him? That he'd admitted his love too late, after she stopped believing it was possible? That Tim was a shield she used to protect herself from getting hurt again? That she wasn't sure if she meant any of it, at the time, because she convinced herself it was a well-intentioned lie?
Paige didn't know how she was supposed to give Walter a satisfactory answer when she couldn't even explain it to herself.
"Did you find it?"
Paige nearly had a heart attack. She needed to get herself under control—Walter was becoming steadily more perceptive and she couldn't let him catch on to her distress. After the wedding. After the wedding, you can tell him everything.
"Um…" For a second, she forgot what she'd even come into the room for. Glancing around, her eyes landed on a metal ladder in the corner and then on the unopened box that Toby had obnoxiously placed on the highest shelf. "Yeah, I just need a second to grab it."
"I can do it," Walter called from his desk.
"No, I'm okay." Paige dragged the ladder over to the shelving unit, snapping the sides into place just as the genius appeared. He grabbed the rails to stabilize her while she climbed up to the second tallest rung and reached out, consciously balancing her weight to retrieve the box with both hands. "Did Toby have a rationale for hiding this up here?"
Walter shrugged. "He probably considered it a target for theft."
The liaison rolled her eyes, passing the package down to Walter with one hand while the other gripped the top of the ladder. "Yes, obviously the most valuable loot in this garage full of government projects and genius inventions is a box of centerpiece decorations."
"I didn't say it was logical."
Paige glanced behind her before working her way back down. She was almost at the bottom when the sole of her boot slipped and she stumbled, Walter's hands instinctively grabbing her waist to keep her from falling.
Her first thought was whether he had dropped the box or set it down before she tripped, but that concern was quickly chased from her mind when she realized that Walter hadn't let go. The liaison still had one hand on the ladder and the other was clutching his shoulder, her nails pressing slightly into his back—if it was uncomfortable, he didn't seem to notice. Walter flexed his fingers gently against her sides and Paige thought her knees would buckle. It was ridiculous how the slightest bit of contact from him could light her up, and his intense focus was doing nothing to bring her back to her senses.
She wanted this, god she wanted this, her heart was thundering and his hands traveled slightly upward, making her tremble involuntarily. He moved closer, painfully slowly, and Paige had no intention of being the first one to pull away. She'd wondered once if his touch left her burning simply because she had gone so long without being touched. She knew now that wasn't the case.
"Mom? We're back!"
Walter and Paige jumped apart at the sound of Ralph's voice, her son's excited chattering nearly drowned by the pounding in her ears. She ducked out of the room without another glance at the genius, unable to confront whatever she was going to see in his eyes.
That was a mistake. He wouldn't be trying to kiss her if he knew what really happened on that rocket. If he knew that she'd lied to him, chosen someone else over him in the misguided hope of having a normal life, lashed out at him because her own feelings were unmanageable. Walter deserved the truth first, and even if he forgave her, things wouldn't be the same between them. She could lose all of this. She could lose him.
Paige took a deep breath and plastered on a smile for her son's benefit as she hugged him. "Hey, baby. I missed you."
