Eventually, Paige managed to get herself moving, but all the managed was to pace the floor, her pace increasing until she was panting, but she only stopped, paused with her hand on her desk for support, for a moment or two before she was walking again, slower this time, but still fueled by anxiety and dread.
She jumped when she heard the garage door open, looking over without having a clue as to who it might be. She wasn't sure if she was disappointed or relieved when Sylvester grinned over at her. "Hey, I'm here to help!"
"I really messed up. Like…like a lot."
Sylvester looked surprised. Paige didn't blame him. She certainly hadn't expected that to come out of her mouth either. "Uh," Sylvester said. "I was more so talking about Thanksgiving prep, but…if you need some sort of advice, I suppose I can try to help with that too. Though I can't say I'm the best at advice. This morning someone asked me if I should go with Uber or Lyft and I told them it depended what company their family wanted to sue when they were gruesomely murdered."
Paige blinked. "I'm gonna tell you about this anyway. Okay? Please, I mean?"
"Yeah." Sylvester grabbed a nearby chair and pulled it over, and Paige realized when he gestured that he meant her to sit in it. He grabbed another one for himself, settled it across her, and sat down. "Talk to me."
Paige opened her mouth and everything came spilling out. Details of how she ran into Linda on that rainy night, how that encounter had led to lunches and shopping and tanning at the beach. How the friendship of the older woman had done so much to make Walter's absence not easy, but not quite as hard. Her voice cracked once, ever so slightly, when she got to what they had discussed that morning, and how Linda had taken it, and how ever since she left Paige had been pacing the garage trying to figure out how to handle it, but not being able to think clearly enough to make any progress in that matter.
Throughout it all, Sylvester stayed silent, his expression sympathetic, giving her all of his attention without interrupting. When she finished, lowering her eyes, he stayed silent for another moment, only shifting his weight.
"You're not a terrible person."
Paige lifted her head, confused as to why he would lead with that, and then she remembered that the last thing she'd said was I'm such a terrible person. She shrugged. "I feel like one. She genuinely likes me and now she thinks I'm just using her."
"Yeah, you probably only met her because Walter is away…"
"I actually met her because her date with my boyfriend led to her having a bomb strapped to her chest," Paige said, "but yeah, we're only friends because of the circumstances of me being parked by that curb on that night and her recognizing me and needing a ride home."
"But she can't think that means that you're not going to want to still be friends with her when Walter comes home. Who is only friends with their significant other?" Sylvester shrugged. "The answer to that is pretty much no one. And a lot of the time if you don't have any other relationships than your romantic one, that means something isn't healthy in your romantic relationship."
"Yeah, but like…our friendship was built on Walter being away. If he wasn't, I don't know if I would have put as much effort into starting to hang out with her as I did."
"But don't all circumstances shape what we say and do and want?" Sylvester said. "Without Walter I never would have met Megan. And that didn't mean that my relationship with her was in any way cheapened. She's the greatest thing that ever happened to me. And we all know you've been hanging out with Linda and she seems to really make you happy. That's not going to change when Walter comes home. Sure, you may see her a little less because you'll obviously be seeing him more, but you'll be seeing all of us less, at least when we aren't working. You're not the kind of person to drop a friend because it's suddenly less convenient."
"I guess. I just hate how she left like that. She's not the type of person to just take off. Not unless she's really flustered or upset. Then she is definitely that type. And like, you know how I get really upset when I know something I specifically said or did distressed Walter, or Ralph, or any genius, because I know how hard socializing can be for you and I hate when I make it worse, like, that's how I feel about this. She's such an awkward, anxious person, and…" Paige shook her head. "And I could just tell that she felt safe around me. And now she thinks I'm using her."
"Mr. O'Brien!"
Walter turned. "Gutierrez. Hello."
It was rare that Walter and Alejandro Gutierrez were actually in the same place. The older man was one of the people in charge of the project that Walter was working on, but he managed scheduling and had several other National Security issues that he was privy to, so he spent a good amount of time in the United States, and on the four months that Walter had been doing these jobs, this was only the second time that he had actually come face to face with Gutierrez.
"Glad to have caught you," Gutierrez said, reaching out to shake Walter's hand. "Wanted to let you know that we have had some scheduling changes."
"Oh?" Walter asked, feeling slightly on edge. He was just over a month away from going home. If Gutierrez told him his project was being extended, he would have to accept the extension – the world was at risk. But he didn't want to. At this point, his feeling of duty toward the Greater Good, and Paige and Ralph's understanding of that, was all that was keeping him from rushing home to them. It was going to be hard enough to get through to the end of the year. He didn't know how he or either of them would handle being separated for longer.
"Yes. You will be going to France next week. This was initially not in the plan, but there are some folks undercover there that need your assistance."
"How will this affect the rest of my schedule?" Walter asked.
"We are closing a secret base in Mexico that is no longer needed. So you will just be going to a different location Tuesday and Wednesday. It may push our overall schedule back a few hours, because it will take longer to fly to Europe from here than Central America, obviously, but everything else should still be on schedule."
"Good."
"In some sort of rush, O'Brien?"
"No, sir," Walter said. He knew enough to understand that lamenting about missing home was not going to improve his relationship with his superiors. "Just glad to be efficient, is all."
