Walter on the other hand, even after firing her, he gave her so much money to ensure she would be okay with Ralph. He'd even gotten her the best job she'd ever had with Richard's company. All to ensure she would be okay. The closest she came to answering one of his messages after the break up was when she found he still paid her two months of her salary from Scorpion, even knowing they'd formed CP and were going after jobs from him. He even included the vacation time she had coming as well as sick time.
She'd wanted to covertly see if Walter had done the same for the guys so she purposely screwed up payroll so they'd be a week late getting paid. And the guys went off the rails over it. Citing bills and commitments they had that they needed their checks to pay. It had been worth fronting them their paychecks out of her bank account to know that Walter hadn't paid them anything.
She swallowed the last of the wine in her glass before refilling it.
There weren't a lot of people between Drew and Walter but what there was hadn't been worth much emotionally. It seemed as soon as she became emotionally invested in them they all cheated or left her. She wondered just what was so wrong with her that everyone did this to her. Why wasn't she ever enough for someone? Her thoughts immediately thought of Walter. At first she thought it was because he had been her latest but she knew that wasn't the case at all. How many times had Walter demonstrated just how much he loved and valued her?
She sighed realizing that she'd actually failed Walter and their relationship, not him. They hadn't been together too long, just a couple of months when she felt how tiring it was trying to make Walter see what he should do in their relationship. She hadn't even considered how little experience he had and that everything emotionally for Walter was work. He needed a textbook to explain it to him and then he could perform and instead of really helping him, she'd turned to Toby. She had hoped that somehow he'd take Walter aside and help him understand. Not that he did. Toby knew there were problems but he couldn't be bothered to try and help.
She knew it was her job, both as his liaison and as his girlfriend, the woman who loved him. But instead she let the relationship swirl around a vast whirlpool. Poor Walter didn't even know, had no clue how she felt and she never bothered to explain it. If she had just done that they could have steered out of that whirlpool but instead she allowed them to continue around it. Even as the bow of their ship was growing closer and closer to pointing into the center of that maw, she just let the current take them along.
Yes she thought he was stupid in what he did with Florence, and not telling her. But she had realized after the breakup that he didn't do it trying to hide it, he'd done it because he thought that was what a white lie was about. He thought he was sparing her feelings about not wanting to go to the lecture. And naturally he didn't want the ticket to go to waste. She knew exactly why he'd asked her to go. To reveal he'd taken her would have meant telling her he lied about that lecture. She grimaced as she thought of that lesson she taught Walter. While she was glad he put it to use about the lecture, she'd wished he hadn't taken Florence or at least told her the next day. She felt she could have handled it all differently then. She sighed even as she realized that even if he had they were still on course oblivion with the maw of the whirlpool. She wasn't being honest with him. She only taught him white lies because she felt the sting of his truthfulness over her breakfast that morning. If she'd just taken the time to teach him about what she was feeling instead.
She didn't once talk to him about how she felt, and all he did was to hide an outing that had no real consequence to it. She was hiding her emotions. Something she knew had a lot of consequences to it because of how Drew had treated her. She sighed as she drained her glass and refilled it. Walter had no clue, and all of his messages had been suitably apologetic. He'd demonstrated his understanding of her feelings while trying to explain how sorry he was and that Florence meant nothing to him. He was even willing to fire her if Paige wanted and would give him a second chance.
She sighed as she remembered the many times she had guided him around minefields in an emotionally driven world. Sometimes he listened right off the bat others he would still try and do it his way and almost without exception they always blew up in his face. She laughed a bit at the memory of Linda behind the ballistic glass and the text messages he'd preprogrammed to be sent to her. Poor Walter, he was trying to figure out a way to be endearing and efficient at the same time. She shook her head remembering how jealous she felt over the situation. Or how jealous she was when she thought he'd had sex with that woman the night before Richard's smart building fiasco.
She knew from the outset that there was something about Walter that called to her. He meant so much to her. She shed a few tears as she remembered their third case. Walter was still inside the building with the bomb and then the bomb went off. Clouds of smoke and debris filled the air and she remembered screaming his name. How much he already meant to her. She blushed as she thought of how mad she got because of how bad she was scared of Ralph's actions that she blew up on Walter. She didn't even realize how much she meant to him and how much pain her words caused him even back then.
Then at the airport she saw the TV as Ralph called to her and she saw Walter in that car on the side of the hill. Except for Ralph, nothing else mattered to her at that point as she grabbed Ralph's arm and dragged him behind her as she ran for their car.
She remembered kissing his lips in the hospital following his rescue.
She topped off her glass with the last of the wine and just before she brought the glass up to take a sip she heard a neighbor as they started playing a guitar, badly. She rolled her eyes. And then the amateurish voice that began singing caused her to shake her head.
"I had wanted us to be a family of three."
"But I'd spent so much time alone."
"That I'm afraid it made me too free."
"So independent, that I made you feel alone."
"But the truth is I'm not my best without thee"
"When I'm with you, it soothes my mind."
"And I feel fine, I feel refine."
"When you're with me, my mind can rest."
"With you my thoughts can nest, my thoughts feel blessed."
Paige's head came up as the words struck her. The words weren't the exact same but it was clear who was singing, and he was singing to her. The tears that had been in her eyes spilled over her lower lids and began running down her face. She put her glass on the end table.
"You're the calm, I'm able to hold in my arms."
"You're the peace that I need, you so disarm."
"When you're with me, my mind can rest."
"With you my thoughts can nest, my thoughts feel blessed."
"Walter…" Paige jumped up and began moving quickly towards her front door.
"I had wanted us to be a family of three."
"But I'd spent so much time alone."
"That I'm afraid it made me too free."
"So independent, that I made you feel alone."
"But the truth is I'm not my best without thee"
"My first instincts, are to always hide away."
"With you I never knew that fear, I needed you to be near."
"You disarm my need, to run from you."
"With you my thoughts can nest, my thoughts feel blessed."
Paige struggled trying to get the door unlocked as she began crying harder.
"Whether it takes you a week, or even a decade."
"No one else can compare, they would be a downgrade."
"You changed me, and I need to run to you."
"With you my thoughts can nest, my thoughts feel blessed."
"I had wanted us to be a family of three."
"But I'd spent so much time alone."
"That I'm afraid it made me too free."
"So independent, that I made you feel alone."
"But the truth is I'm not my best without thee"
The door flew open and Walter paused as he looked at Paige standing there crying as she seemingly charged out of her condo and into his arms. His guitar trapped between them as he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly to him.
Walter stood there just holding the sobbing woman who was the love of his life as she clung, seemingly, desperately, to him. She shook as so many emotions flooded out with her tears. He tightened his arms about her as he felt her almost clawing against him trying, it felt, as if she was attempting to merge their two bodies into one. Walter wasn't one for much emotional expression. Anger and irritation had always been the easiest for him to express, he often wondered if it was because those were the emotions he saw most from his Father.
He was well aware that according to psychology, most boys tended to emulate their Fathers and girls their Mothers. He didn't care for psychology. Though since the break up he wondered if it hadn't been because of how Toby was. It probably contributed to it, but he didn't care for it before he met Toby either.
To be honest this was not how he expected the night to go after he persuaded Cabe into seeing if he couldn't get Ralph away from Paige for the weekend.
Cabe hadn't liked the idea at all. He felt like he might be betraying his relationship with Paige to do it. But he was desperate to see the couple back together. He knew Paige wasn't happy, he knew she was slowly killing herself with everything that happened and how the other geniuses had dumped all of the responsibilities of Centipede Partners on her shoulders. He found he was truly disgusted in the guys and what they were doing. After brow beating her into joining their venture, they just left it all to her to figure out the business end of it. They couldn't even be bothered to help her pick out a location or furniture for the offices.
And he knew she only did it because the only choice she thought she had for employment since Richard turned her down was going back to waitressing. He'd tried to get her to see that it was just fear and if nothing else Walter would take her back to help him guide Scorpion. But she wasn't ready to be back in his presence even temporarily.
Walter was making a slight murmuring noise into her ear as he brought his one hand up to stroke the back of her head through her damp hair.
"Your hair is still damp Paige, and perhaps we should go in so you don't catch any chills." Walter finally whispered.
Paige smiled a little through the tears that were still running down her cheeks but she finally nodded.
Walter smiled as she wasn't letting go to move inside so he applied a little pressure and she slowly took a step back and then another and another. After they passed through the doorway he closed the door and reached back and flicked the deadbolt. He was perfectly willing to just stand there and let her just cling to him if that was what she needed.
They stood there for several long minutes as her crying slowly got lighter. As her arms loosened slightly she finally took his hands and pulled him to the couch and pushed him down on it and sat down next to him and curled up against him after he removed his guitar and sat it against the end table.
They just sat there holding each other with one arm around the other and their other hands clasped together with the other as they just breathed, not saying a word.
Walter swallowed hard as he saw the robe had parted in a way that exposed a good bit of her body that lay just under it. He averted his eyes as he turned his head. The last thing he needed was an erection to fight with his thoughts as he wanted to talk with Paige and try and clear the air. He tried focusing on his breathing, something methodical and routine to take his mind off of what was happening. But it was no use. With a bit more than eight weeks since he'd last been intimate with Paige, that time was working against him. It didn't help that she was laying almost half on top of him. Her warmth, the smell of her shampoo and the body lotion almost over powered the natural fragrance of her freshly washed skin. But his sense of smell still picked it up as his brain was craving it all.
"Paige, maybe we should sit up for a moment and talk. Surely you'd like to adjust your robe a bit as well." Walter started but Paige didn't respond. He frowned as he angled his head and saw her eyes were closed and he could feel the slow even breathing as she slept. Walter smiled. "How I love you Paige. I'm so sorry I hurt you, it was never my intention to cause you pain."
He wondered just how tired she was that she could fall asleep like that. Then he picked up the scent of wine and saw the bottle and glass on the other end table. He smiled as he just nodded. Walter pulled his phone out and put it in airplane mode. He didn't know if anyone would call but he didn't want it disturbing her rest. He could see all of the stress markers on her body. She hadn't been eating right which correlated with what Cabe had told him. He just relished in holding her.
His eyes looked about the room and he easily picked up several things that would have normally driven Paige crazy that weren't clean the way she normally cleaned them. Despite his thoughts and everything he did to try and take his mind off of it, he still developed a full erection sitting there. It took a little over an hour but Walter finally dozed off as well. He woke with a start and looked about and everything seemed normal. Paige was still sound asleep but her grip on him had softened and he got out from under her and used the restroom. He stopped by the hall closet on the way back and got a blanket out of the closet. As he slipped back onto the couch Paige instinctively curled up on him again, seemingly without waking up.
Walter just smiled as he did his best to straighten her robe and then opened the blanket and covered her with it.
Greetings! Happy VD day! My friend Chspcs reminded me yesterday that today was VD and I thought how appropriate that Waige was back in each other's arms on that day of all days. lol Anyway, so glad so many of you enjoyed the start of the story. Hopefully you continue enjoying it! I'm so glad not everyone is tired of fix-its. lol
SkunkeeFunk - Glad you enjoyed!
Railman - Glad you loved I shared it finally! I was actually debating between "Unconsciously Conscious" and "Walter Under The Bridge" when I went through all my stories and saw Song and I thought, yeah, it's time for this one. I'm trying to get it moving again. I did start on chapter 5 Saturday and got a little over halfway done. But still no real drive.
Pearliegirl - Aww..thanks! Well I don't know if you are older or not. I know 3 of my readers are older. But this year will see me 3 scores old! lol Oh yes, lots and lots more Callan! I'm done with chapters 20-43 though I've still got to write chapter 44, which I think will bring the year 2001 to a close story wise (I think that includes 6 really big emotional events in their lives). Maybe chapter 45. That just sees the young lovers well into their 15th and 16th year of life. So lots of stuff to do there. Some serious angst and drama headed your way when I return to posting Callan.
Guest - Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
2LawDog - So good hearing from you! Ralphy is a special one for sure!
Chipbass - Thank you brother! So glad you enjoyed it!
Margaret - Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it! I think you can count on Rizzuto being involved! lol
Susan - hehe Well I do love angsty. lol Glad you liked it! Hopefully you like this chapter too! Yeah, I didn't get that, when she found out they knew, she was pissed but then went into business with them? I was like, oh hell no. I'd have drove off and ignored them. I guess that is why it came out she did that here. hehe
Fares - Thank you, I'll probably keep trying to write no matter what! So glad you are enjoying it! Yeah, I am sure Rizzuto will be making an appearance in this story at some point.
A big thank you to Chspcs and Susan for encouragement on the song. Obviously I had used the song as it was written in the show, then made some tweaks based off of some ideas Chspcs had commented to me about the song and then I rewrote the song, trying to keep it amateurish and bumbling/awkward and nerdy. They both like it so, hope you did too.
To the Adventure! -Tim
