Part 5 May 3, 2018 Saturday morning
Walter fell asleep on Paige's couch last night after they ate their ice cream. They talked for a few hours and started to fall back in to old times a little. They were both still very apologetic to each other about the way they acted. They shared some more hugs and a few tender kisses. Walter felt so much better than he had in weeks as did Paige. Ralph was just as excited to see them together again.
Walter was out cold before eleven. It was the first time he slept in close to two weeks. Sleep he desperately needed. And if it wasn't for the banging on the front door, he probably would have slept another several hours. Paige had been awake for a couple of hours herself and was enjoying her Saturday morning sipping some coffee and flipping through some magazines as Walter remained motionless on the couch. She liked glancing over and seeing him contently sleeping. It warmed her heart. Knowing he felt instantly comfortable around her again made her smile. When she heard the banging on the door, she jumped up knowing it was probably going to be Toby at a minimum, and possible Sly and Happy too. She contemplated answering the door for several seconds, not knowing if she was ready for all the questions and stares that were sure to follow. She asked Walter, who had just opened his eyes and was still mostly disoriented, if he wanted her to answer the door or not. He was able to tell her he had nothing to hide, and she could do whatever she wanted to do.
"It's about time you let us in. Oh, you have got to be kidding me." Toby started out saying before Sly could even get in the door and before Paige could even say hello to them.
"Good morning, Toby. Sly. Is Happy with you guys too?" Paige asked, still wearing Walter's clothes. They were comfortable and she loved the scent of them. And she knew how much Walter liked it when she wore them.
"She's ah parking the truck. Didn't see his car in the lot, so huh, this is really awkward. Did not expect this." Toby said.
"Why are you guys here, you do realize it's Saturday." Paige asked them.
"We um wanted to check in on you after you left the diner yesterday. Make sure you didn't use any poor judgement and hook up with some poor schmuck. But looks like we might be a little too late for that last one." Toby told her.
"Get the hell out of my house Toby." Paige screamed at him, "You to Sylvester."
They both quickly turned around and left before Happy could even make it to the door. She stopped them dead in their tracks as she approached them.
"What did you say Toby? And don't try to lie to me." Happy told him glaring at him.
"What? Paige kicked us out." He responded.
"I can see that you idiot, but why did she kick you out?" Happy asked wanting to know what he said.
"I don't know, you should probably ask her why she kicked us out."
"Fine, you're too much of a chicken shit to tell me. Don't either one of you move an inch." Happy told them. And they didn't.
Happy knocked on Paige's door for a few seconds before the door started to open.
"What now, oh, sorry Happy, I thought it was Toby again. Come in." Paige told her.
Happy saw Walter sitting on the couch. He looked like a freight train had hit him. Twice. Obviously, she could tell he must just have gotten up after some much needed sleep.
"Sorry for whatever it was my idiot for a husband said in here. I'll leave you two alone. O'Brien, I need a few words with you at some point, understood? And just give me a minute and the two buffoons will have an apology for you both." Happy told them in a matter of seconds.
Happy whirled around and lit into Toby and he reappeared less than a minute later apologizing to both of them. Sylvester also told them he was sorry for interrupting them. And like that they were gone.
"Paige, I'm sorry I fell asleep here last night, I didn't want you to have to deal with that. I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Being near you seemed to really help me relax last night. I should have said something when they insinuated you and I um…"
"No. And don't be sorry. I love that you were able to fall asleep here. It lets me know you feel comfortable here with us. They need to realize our personal life is none of their concern. It shouldn't ever have been. Let them think what they want. I will talk to them whenever we meet up again. Speaking of, we do need to talk about Centipede. We still have a lot to talk about. But first, let me cook you some breakfast. Can you get Ralph up and I'll have some French toast ready in ten minutes for us." Paige told him with a warm smile.
"Why do I feel like I just got suckered into this? We both know how hard he is to get up on a Saturday." Walter said stretching his arms and rubbing his eyes still feeling the effects of going all that time with no sleep.
"If I throw in some chocolate chips on the French toast, will that make a difference?" Paige asked him as she leaned against the kitchen counter with the starts of one of those smiles Walter could never resist.
"I'm listening." Walter told her smiling, moving off the couch and getting a little closer to her.
"Well, well, Mr. O'Brien, perhaps I could be talked into a kiss as well if you are um feeling lucky." Paige told him reaching her arms around his neck and standing on her tip toes.
God she is beautiful Walter thought to himself.
"One um now and another one later and you have yourself a deal." Walter told her thinking he got a much better deal than the one that was initially offered.
"You could have had a lot more than a kiss, nerd." Paige said with a full blown smile and a playful slap on the cheek. She always liked to mess with him a little.
"I'd like to um renegotiate." Walter asked as his hands slid along her sides and made their way to the back of her sweat pants as he rested them on her behind. Well his sweat pants. Walter loved the way she looked and felt in his clothes. Any clothes really, or no clothes worked too. He wasn't too picky. "You know how much I love when you have my clothes on."
"Hey, watch it mister. I don't have anything on under those. You'll have to check back with me later for some of that." She told him as she leaned hard into his kiss making sure he could feel the firmness of her breasts against him. "Now, go get Ralph up, I need to start breakfast."
After breakfast, Walter and Paige talked to Ralph about how they were going to try and handle their relationship this time. Ralph was able to finally give some of his opinions as well. They came to a conclusion of how they wanted to proceed. A date night once every week, at a minimum, just the two of them. It didn't always have to be fancy, casual worked too. Just something they both would enjoy. There would also be a family night out with Ralph, possibly Cabe, and even everyone else if they were able to eventually work through things. Maybe not every week, but a few times a month for sure. No more than three "sleepovers" a week for starters, until they both felt fully confident in their relationship. All with complete openness and honesty. They both wanted this to work, well all three of them. They vowed to give this everything they had.
Ralph went to his room to play video games for a while before he was heading to a friend's house for dinner and then a movie. Paige and Walter used the time to talk about what they planned to do about Scorpion and Centipede Partners.
"I told the guys I would give Centipede three weeks when I agreed to join them. And that is all they are going to get. I will walk away after three weeks. As much as I would rather just walk away right now, I think keeping my word to them might help if we want to try to work through everything with them at some point."
"As usual, you are right. I know right now that I am still hurt by what they did. And I still don't know why they all left. I know we were able to work through almost all of our issues, so that would make me hope that maybe I can work through my issues with them as well."
"Walter, I have issues with them too now. For two weeks, none of them said anything about that night. Like it never happened. It wasn't them trying to protect me either. Now I know it's because they were still keeping stuff from me. If I knew they all turned you down for the lecture before you asked Florence all of this would have been different. And I'm not trying to make excuses for what I said to you, that was 100 percent my fault. But like I said yesterday, I said those things that weren't true because I was so unstable that night."
"Yes, but my lie caused you to be upset, so it's not all your fault and I promise I won't ever lie to you again."
"Regardless, I over reacted and I will try my hardest to never do that again either. And when my three weeks are up, I will find a job somewhere, preferably not waiting tables again." Paige said with a smile.
"Oh, why wouldn't you want to come back and work at Scorpion?" Walter asked a little bewildered.
"After everything I did? I didn't know if you still would want me back there with you. Our personal relationship needs to be treated differently than where I work. That has to be one of the differences this time. So, I would understand if you didn't want me at Scorpion anymore."
"Paige, of course I would. When I told you I forgave you for everything that happened I meant it. Scorpion was at its best when you were there. You meant more to the success of the business than anyone else did, myself included. I hope you know that. Before you were there we were always a heartbeat away from imploding on ourselves. You brought sense and order to all of us. I remember saying you would thrive with us, do you remember that?" Walter said.
"Yes, of course. It was after the guys questioned my spot on the team. You told them you believed in me. No one had ever said that about me before." Paige told him while fondly thinking about how Walter always believed in her.
"And not only did you thrive, you made all of us thrive too." Walter told her honestly.
"Thank you Walter, you always have believed in me. I am still really sorry for hurting you and I'm grateful we got to talk through what we did. And I know we have more to work on, to make sure we don't let what happened to us happen again. I just want you to know how much I want to make this last forever. And if you are offering me my old job back, of course I would be thrilled to have it."
"Forever doesn't even sound like a long enough time for me to show you how much I still love you. And I don't want you to have your old job back, I want you to be so much more than that this time. Help me run Scorpion with me; side by side. It was how I envisioned it being soon anyway, so why not now, or in a week when you are able to come back."
"That was so sweet Walter, but you know I can't accept that." Paige told him.
"But why not Paige, I promise you this is something I have put a lot of thought into." Walter let her know.
"You have?" Paige asked him inquisitively.
"Yes, I have, and I will show you, but first I have another idea for tonight." Walter told her as his mind was starting to try and put some plans in motion.
"What do you have in mind?" Paige asked him not sure what his intentions were.
"Well not just for tonight. But hear me out. We talked about reading our letters and notes to each other, right?" Walter started.
"Yes. Why, what are you thinking?" Paige asked with a smile wanting to know what he was planning.
"What if we read one of them at the beginning of our dates?" Walter offered, hoping she understood what he was getting at.
"Are you asking me on a date tonight?" Paige asked him, with a beautiful smile.
"Yes, I would like to take you out to dinner and then maybe we could go to the beach and watch the sun set. I think that would be a good um way to help to restart our relationship. The beach was always a place we both enjoyed going to. We would be by ourselves and be able to relax just like we used to always do."
"I love that idea Walter. We just need to remember that those first thoughts were from two weeks ago when everything happened. I'm not going to get upset about anything you wrote down. And if you have any questions about what I wrote down I want you to be able to ask me anything okay?" Paige wanted to remind him.
"I was thinking along the same lines. I know how bad I hurt you, so I expect that some of your thoughts about me at that time will reflect that. Would you like me to surprise you with a restaurant or do you want to help pick one out?" Walter offered to her.
"I think I want to be surprised. You know I usually don't like surprises, but I'm up for one tonight with you." Paige told him with a smile.
"But no McDonalds, right?" Walter asked her, smiling.
"I wouldn't turn you down if that was where you took me." Paige told him, being completely serious.
"Well, lucky for you I may know the perfect place." Walter told her, "Can I pick you up six?"
"How about five thirty and we can drop Ralph off at his friend's house on the way. He's only about five minutes from here." Paige asked.
"OK, and after we watch the sun set, I want to run you by the garage to show you something else before Ralph gets back."
"OK."
"Is it okay if I borrow your car to run to the garage around 4:30 to take a quick shower and change clothes?" Walter asked realizing he was without his car.
"Will that give you enough time?" Paige asked him while nodding yes.
"Fifteen minutes there and then back, and thirty minutes to shower and get dressed. It will give me the most amount of time to spend with you right now." He told her in a way only Walter could.
"That sounds efficient, I can't argue with that." Paige told him using one of his favorite words and another kiss on his lips.
"Will that leave you enough time to get ready too, Paige?"
"I think I can make myself presentable in an hour, yes." Paige told him.
"You could go just as you are right now and still be the most beautiful person at McDonald's when we get there." Walter told her while smiling.
"Thank you, I think." Paige told him as she leaned in for some more kisses.
The next few hours flew by as they spent time together. They talked more about issues that had arisen in the past and ways to work through them in the future. Walter left right at 4:30 like he planned and was back at 5:27, which gave him three minutes to take some deep breaths and prepare himself for his first date with the woman he still planned to someday marry.
"Wow Paige, you look um absolutely stunning. I um, oh boy." Walter told her after a lengthy episode of being unable to get anything to come out of his mouth. "You are literally breathtaking."
Paige smiled, she was hoping to get some kind of a reaction from him, but that was better than what she had hoped for. He let her know that she still had it.
"So where are you taking me for our date Mr. O'Brien? Will my attire be suitable?" Paige asked with a flirty smile.
"It's a um s-secret remember? B-but um your um your, you are so beautiful Paige, you truly are."
"Aww, Walter thank you, you are so sweet." She told him pinching his cheek. She loved that man and the way he always made her feel so beautiful.
"Hey buddy, how are you? You ready for your movie?" Walter asked him while still smiling at Paige.
"Yeah, it should be fun. Are you going to be here with mom when I get back?"
Walter looked over to Paige for an answer and she nodded. "Yes, I should still be here when you get..."
"I actually think we will pick you up from Billy's house when you get back from the movie." Paige told them. "If that will work for you."
"OK, you want to play some video games when I get home?" Ralph asked, hopeful.
"Sure, if we have time and it's not too late. I've been practicing though. You might be in trouble." Walter told him. Paige let out a breath seeing the look in Ralph's eyes when Walter told him he would play a game with him. That was always one of her fondest memories, when Walter played video games with Ralph that first night they met.
"Good, cause you needed it." Ralph told him while his mom all of a sudden laughed at his trash talk to Walter.
They dropped Ralph off at his friend's house and headed towards dinner. The couple held hands in the car the whole ride. It seemed like they both needed the other's touch to reassure themselves they were officially together again.
"Walter, there is no way you have reservations for here tonight. This place has been booked solid for months. We tried for mon…" Paige stopped herself knowing they had tried to get reservations here several times while they were dating.
"It's okay Paige, we both know what happened, and we have moved forward, right. Being here with you now is what's important." Walter told her re-assuredly.
"You're right. I'm still sorry for what happened. But how did you manage to finally get reservations?" Paige asked him.
"Honestly, I made them several months ago. They were supposed to be for a couple of nights ago. For our um.." Walter told her wanting her to know the truth.
"Anniversary and our, what would have been our engagement." Paige said sadly.
"Yes. Is this okay, or would you rather go someplace else? I wasn't sure if you would be comfortable coming here after knowing that was what the original reservation was for. I talked to the manager this afternoon and asked if we could use our reservation today because we missed it the other night and he told me we could. But if you would rather go somewhere else, we can find a suitable restaurant."
"No, like you said, we are moving on from that, and we are together now. So, we should enjoy it. Thank you for telling me the truth." Paige told him holding tighter on to his hand.
"I um learned my lesson, no more lies for me." He told her with a kiss.
The food was simply to die for. They had an amazing time together. They danced and they talked, and they ate, and they did it all with smiles on their faces. Neither one of them wanted the meal to end. It was one of the fanciest and most expensive restaurants in the Los Angeles area. Some people have waited over six months to get in. And if it were for their first anniversary or their engagement or just a second first date, to Walter, it didn't matter. He was spending the evening with his soul mate. There was nowhere else he would want to be. And Paige felt the exact same way. They had decided when they got there, they would wait to read each other's letters and notes until they were at the beach for the sunset. And after they finished eating that was where they were headed.
"Oh my gosh Walter, that was heavenly. It was amazing. Now I know why people wait all that time to go. My pasta was so good. It was prepared perfectly. And thank you for sharing some of your chicken too. It was delicious. But oh my gosh, my favorite part was the chocolate dessert we got to share. Thanks for letting me have most of it. That may have been the best cake I ever had. Thank you for taking me there. I do wish it were a few nights ago though." Paige told him as they kissed before getting in the car.
"Me too Paige. But you're right, the food was excellent. Maybe next time we can try another dessert too. We can go back again for a special occasion, okay? And hopefully pretty soon." Walter told her with flushed cheeks.
"Wal-ter." Paige whispered his name and held his arm when he said he hoped they would be back soon. She liked the sound of that, a lot.
They arrived at the beach and Walter grabbed the blanket to lay on as well as a few sweatshirts and another blanket in case it got cool after the sun went down. He also had a picnic basket he had put together that had some snacks and a bottle of wine for Paige if she wanted some. He tried to think of everything.
He set everything up, took his shoes off and found a spot right next to Paige. They shared a few kisses as they first situated themselves on the blanket. They both felt extremely close to each other as they laid down in the blanket and continued to make out. It was still almost 45 minutes until the sun would set so they knew they had plenty of time before it got dark. About twenty minutes later after they both needed to catch their breath Walter sat up and opened up the picnic basket and pulled his notebook from the top of it and handed it to Paige.
A/N Just a pinch of Centipede, looks like they will have some making up to do. As for Waige, they seem to be doing just fine. Thanks for reviewing. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Let me know what you think. And now some words to our reviewers.
Railman - yes there was lots emotion last chapter. Seems they are both on the same page with working things out.
Grykon - Who needs drama between the lovebirds. Toby can usually supply enough of it on his own. Besides, is fluff really that bad. Just sayin'.
Margaret - glad you got caught up. Yes Toby needs help, the clinical kind. Walter and Paige seem to be doing just fine. Let's see what happens next!!
LouBe - Tissues need to be distributed slowly of course. More chances of hand holding and innocent touching. One of these stories I'll have to make Paige ask Walter. She is a take charge kind of gal anyway. Scorpion for sure was an amazing show. Just glad there are still people out there interested in it like us! Hope you continue to enjoy the story as it goes.
Pearliegirl - Glad you are enjoying it. The interaction has been fun. Hopefully a few comments make a big enough impression that stories get tweaked here or there. Thanks again!!