Sorry this fic went a few weeks without an update! I was busy with work and other fics, but I'm back to this one now! I hope to finish it before the premiere, but who knows at this point. I don't want to rush and combine chapters and skip out on content I want to include just to finish it by a deadline, and this fic isn't like Serendipity where I knew it would be off canon from the second 3.01 aired so I had to finish it by then (though I obviously didn't rush Serendipity either, haha).
Walter slid his hand up his body, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of it. The room felt too hot, but he didn't have an individual thermostat in the unit. He supposed he ought to have gone down the hall and turned it down before Paige called. He could attempt to make the excuse that he couldn't have known just how wound she had been, but that would be a lie. He'd spent the past couple of nights struggling to sleep with thoughts of her with him swirling around in his head.
On the other side of the web cam, she was gasping as well, rolling onto her side and grabbing from the stack of tissues on the bedside table, wiping off her fingers. "Oh God," she breathed, rolling back to face him, her body flushed. "I can't wait until we're able to do this in person."
Walter nodded, attempting to regulate his breathing. "Me too. Me too." He shifted the laptop, lifting his hips to pull his boxers back up over them. "I wish it wasn't another six weeks. This is nice, but…"
"But it sucks." Paige nodded, slipping a lock of hair back behind her ear. "I know I'll feel better for a week or so and then it's all going to come back again. Wanting you."
"I'll be lucky if I'm okay for a week," Walter admitted. "I see these sailors here on leave that are going off with women and men from this town and I start craving you. Terribly."
Paige shook her head slowly. "Six more weeks. We can do this."
"But it sucks."
She gave a little laugh. "Yeah. Exactly."
"So what are you up to?" He asked, rolling onto his side and setting the laptop on the oddly soft mattress.
"I'm trying to plan Thanksgiving. Surprisingly it's going well. People aren't as cynical as they used to be. I think it's because we all miss you. It makes us extra thankful for each other."
Walter was glad of that. One thing he used to pretend he found annoying about Paige was her obsession with family holidays. She did it because of her own broken family. When she found a new one, she was desperate for all of them to fully appreciate each other. Knowing that the rest of the cyclone seemed enthusiastic and supportive about her plans for Thanksgiving made him happy.
But he absolutely hated that he was going to spend Thanksgiving without the people that made him actually give a fiddle about it. And if this was how he felt about Thanksgiving, how on Earth was he going to make it through Ralph's birthday? How was he going to make it through Christmas?
"At least when Christmas rolls around," Paige said, as if she'd read his mind, "you will just be five days from coming home." She smiled. "I actually, well, Sly and I, we've been talking about postponing our yearly Christmas celebration until you come home."
"Is this because you want to be free for the inevitable Christmas Day Case, or because you want to wait for that to pop up once I'm home so I can help?" Walter joked. "Because those are usually a doozy."
Paige rolled her eyes. "Shut up."
"Okay. Bye."
"Walter!" She was giggling as he stopped closing his laptop and pushed the top back again. "You don't get to get rid of me that easily."
"Same to you. Seeing as I continue to pester you with Skype calls after all these months apart."
"And don't you dare stop," she said, and Walter smirked. "What?"
"You said that about ten minutes ago?"
Paige lifted her eyebrows and bit her lower lip. "That's right, I did."
God. She could slip right back into it just like that. Walter made a low noise in the back of his throat, and he could tell by the way Paige shifted her weight that she heard it. "Seems like you're not done with me tonight either, huh?"
"I wish you were here," he said, his voice dropping low.
"Six weeks," she said, her eyelids drooping. "Six weeks, and then, oh, and then…"
Walter groaned as she started talking about all the things they would do when they were together again, his hand sliding back down.
Sorry, no smut in this fic - partly because I'm so heavy on it in Try Try Try and partly because I am super duper not comfortable actually writing Skype smut (nor am I super comfortable reading that sort of thing tbh). But anyway, hope to have another update for you guys fairly soon! Thanks for reading.