Carol Ballinger Searls: No worries in the slightest! I hope all is well and I wish you a speedy recovery! I'm so glad you're still enjoying my chapters! I'm also glad you think my descriptions are describing the events well. Always love hearing from you!

Susan: Thanks for your first review! I always love to see how new people are liking it!

Thanks everyone else for their feedback! I'm happy everyone seemed to like my alternate episode.

Here's the conclusion to part 2. A little time with Paige and Walter :).

Also to clarify Paige wasn't turned with Walter's blood, just healed, although there may be some small residual effects addressed down the line.

Chapter 26

Meeting Halfway

The team returned to LA in the middle of the night. Everyone was exhausted and nobody spoke on the drive back to the garage.

Their prisoner and his information had been passed to the authorities before they left Cuba. Sonia said her goodbyes to the team at the airport before boarding a flight home.

When they walked in the garage they dropped off their equipment before leaving for their respective homes. They all agreed to take a few days off, at least through the weekend to recover from this one.

Everyone else was in the parking lot at their respective means of transportation, and Paige was close behind. It was logical for Walter to stay at the garage, so he started making his way up the stairs without a word.

"Um, Walter?" Paige said softly after him from the bottom of the staircase.

Walter didn't turn around, but paused halfway up the stairs and turned his head slightly over his shoulder, indicating he was listening. "Yes?" His response wasn't cold, but did lack all emotion.

Paige found she hadn't actually figured out what to say. What do you say to someone after what the two of them had been through in Cuba? Her conviction had been real in that cell, including her belief that what happened should not be something to be dwelled on or feel guilty about. It happened, she did what she needed to, and they both were ok.

Still, she felt she should say, well, something.

But what?

*A sharp pain in her neck, unnaturally strong arms keeping her from moving.*

Paige gave a quick shake of her head to clear it of the unwelcome memory.

"Did you need something, Paige?"

She looked up and saw that Walter had turned around to face her, but he remained halfway up the stairs. His neutral expression matched his neutral tone. Even his eyes were blank.

*Scared brown eyes the first thing she sees when she opens her own, a metallic taste in her mouth, coughing to catch her breath, she sees blood around his mouth. Her blood.*

"Yeah, um…" she lets out a sigh of annoyance, only with herself and her tired mind.

She looks back up at him. "I'm glad you're ok, Walter. You gave us quite a scare."

Walter's eyes narrowed for a moment, then softened every so slightly. She would have missed it if she hadn't been paying close attention.

"Likewise."

This is ridiculous, she thought.

She ran up the steps and threw her arms around him and pulled him into the biggest hug she could, and she started to cry.

It was instances like these she was teaching Walter about. Instances where is was appropriate and inappropriate to let one's emotions come into play.

In the cells, they had to work together objectively even in an overwhelming situation. Emotion could be used as a tool, as Walter had done, but all of their fear, happiness, sadness, and pain? That was not the time express those emotions.

Now, though…now could be a time for emotion.

Walter seemed to be taken off balance for a second when she ran into him, but quickly steadied himself.

"Um, ok," Walter seemed to not know how to respond. Eventually he wrapped his arms around her, and held her close. Not firmly though, without yield, like in the cell. This was an embrace of strength and comfort, as when one wants to share as well as receive its benefits.

"Please, Walter, stop making it a habit of scaring us like that," Paige asked of him, her quick bought of tears under control.

She felt him nod. "I'll try," he responded. "As long as you promise never to put yourself in danger like that again."

"I'll try," she echoed.

Walter let her go and put his hands on her shoulders. He lowered his head to look her in the eye, not to compel her, but to plead with her.

"Please, Paige. I'm serious. Don't put yourself in that position again. If something happened, if something happened to you, especially because of me, it would, would…"

Walter's eyes started moving back and forth, like he was scouring his brain for the appropriate words to express what he was feeling.

His eyes stopped moving as if he had found the right words, then narrowed slightly, like he didn't quite understand them.

If that were the case, he looked back at her and said them anyway.

"It would break my heart."

Paige couldn't help it. She let out a small laugh, smiling through her tears as she listened to and understood his words.

"Did I say something funny?" Walter asked. He didn't look mad. He truly looked concerned that he had said something wrong.

"No, no, Walter, you didn't." Paige kept smiling, wiping some tears from her eyes.

"Then what?"

"You said something human, and it was beautiful."

"Oh."

Paige nodded, knowing he didn't fully understand, but it was a start.

They both stood there for a moment before Walter broke the silence. "Paige," he started, "even if you were fully aware of the risk you took, and even knowing I was not in control of myself at the time, it would be a great weight off my mind if you accepted my apology, regardless."

The only time Walter wasn't efficient with his time and words, it seemed, was when he was trying to convey something emotional. Therefor, it took Paige a second to realize he was simply trying to say "I'm sorry".

*Fearful eyes staring at her from across the cell, equalling the fear she felt as she felt her life being drained away moments before.*

She nodded, "Ok, Walter. It wasn't your fault, but I accept your apology."

They both seemed to feel a weight completely lift off their shoulders with those words.

Giving him one last squeeze on the shoulder she descended the stairs and headed towards the door.

"I'll see you next week?" Walter called quietly after her.

She turned around and looked up at him with a soft smile. "Yeah, Walter, I'll see you next week."

He gave a small smile in return. "Good."

She left the garage ready for a hot shower, warm meal, and a good night sleep. She got all three.

*****SVD*****

Walter and Paige did see each other the following week. They, along with everyone else, anxiously went back to work. Less volatile assignments did mean more regular work hours, luckily. That meant they were able to go home on time and enjoy some time to themselves.

Knock, knock, knock.

Walter heard three firm knocks on the door of his apartment. He had only recently arrived himself, and was just getting ready for bed.

Who could be knocking at this time? he thought.

He rose from his couch, setting his book down on his coffee table. He walked over to his door and twisted the lock before opening it to reveal who waited behind it.

It was Paige.

She stood there and gave him a soft, friendly smile.

"Hey, um, sorry to bother you," she started, "but, uh, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out, watch a movie? Ralph's at a sleepover, believe it or not, and the house is kinda empty. I was going a little stir crazy," she explained.

Walter was taken off guard, but he tried to remember the manners Paige had been teaching him. "Oh, uh, yes, of course. Come on in."

He opened the door wider and stepped aside, allowing Paige entry. He noticed her looking at his t-shirt with amusement.

He looked down, honestly forgetting the shirt he grabbed without looking out of the closet.

It depicted a grumpy looking leprechaun underneath large green text displaying the words, "Kiss Me, I'm Irish". It had been a birthday gift last year from a certain behaviorist with a sense of humor. It almost seemed like the joke had waited until this moment to be sprung right in front of Paige.

"Uh…" he said awkwardly. "It was a gift from Toby."

"Of course it was," she answered, still with an amused sparkle in her eye.

She walked further inside and took a quick look at the surroundings. He imagined she was surprised at the difference between here and his garage lodgings. This apartment had very little in it, and was very organized, where the garage was always full of gadgets, items, and evidence of multiple ongoing experiments.

The rule for the lodgings here was no experiments or anything his mind could get lost in. He did sometimes bring paperwork here, but that was the extent of it.

She glanced at the spot where he had been sitting minutes before, evident by the mug and book laying next to it. He saw her glance at the title.

She looked up at him with further amusement. "Anne Rice? Interview with a Vampire?"

He shrugged sheepishly. "It was suggested."

She nodded. "I read it a long time ago, myself. What do you think so far?"

Walter answered her. "I'm enjoying it. The quality of writing is very impressive. The characters and prose are well developed with great detail. I'm finding the turmoil of the main character regarding the potential loneliness of immortality convincingly sad and…realistic."

Walter hadn't meant his assessment to be so revealing, but it came out that way without him even realizing it.

Paige slowly nodded, absorbing his words. "I would agree," she answered. Walter didn't know if she was agreeing with his book assessment or his unintentionally revealed concern.

"Would you like a seat?" Walter asked, wanting to move on from the unintentionally comber moment.

"Oh, sure, thanks," she responded and moved towards the couch.

Before she could sit down though he tried to nonchalantly walk over and pick up the mug he was drinking from when she came in. Its contents was not something a human would find appetizing. Walter wasn't sure if she noticed what he was doing. If she did she didn't say anything. "Was there a film you had in mind?" he asked as he walked over and put the mug in his fridge.

Walter could clearly see the outline of a few DVD cases in her bag. He had a feeling that some or all of them may have had a supernatural premise, but he was surprised when she said she didn't.

"No," she answered shaking her head back and forth. "I thought maybe you could choose the movie, for once."

"Well, uh, I don't normally watch movies on my own, but I was going to make some time in the near future to watch this new documentary on cosmic energy and solar radiation."

Paige gave him the "you're such a nerd" amused look she had given him countless times before. He started to feel slightly exposed, like he often did when he occasionally revealed to a regular human how different he was in his tastes and activities. Maybe he should have just suggested they watch something she had brought.

But then the amused look broke out into an endearing smile. "I think that would be perfect tonight, Walter." Now Walter didn't have Toby's gift for lie detection, but he was certain she was being completely truthful in those words.

He made popcorn and they sat in front of his TV. About halfway through the film Paige fell asleep, and ended up resting against him.

Walter paused the documentary and looked down at Paige, gently resting on his shoulder. He felt so calm then, so, dare he say, happy. Their agreement to not act on their feelings seemed to make less sense by the second as he took in her sleeping form.

There were so many reasons for them to be hesitant though, especially now with all the challenges his new state brought forth.

Even so, that night, as he gently tucked the blanket around her shoulders before he moved to his own bed, the world seemed to make more sense to him than it had a in a long time.

Here concludes part II. Let me know if you liked how I handled these scenes between Walter and Paige. I thought they deserved a couple scenes to themselves.

Part III: I, Human comes next!