Sorry about the delay, I have been having a creative block for this pair.
Hope you enjoy.
Ema.
****************888888*************z
I am angry with Paige. It hurts to distance myself, and I can see the pain it causes her but what she said hurt. It might not be the best thing to do, but it's the only way I know to respond without cutting her out of my life. I wouldn't survive if I did that. It just hurts.
Paige walked into the garage early that morning, quiet and not interacting with any of the team. Toby had been the first to notice her sitting at her desk, silently and her eyes looked swollen from a night of crying. He backed away and went directly to Happy's side to see what her thought about the situation. The mechanic told him to leave it alone, "Doc, you have a habit of pushing into matters that you don't need to." Toby reacted but Happy put a finger to his lips, "I know you are a clinically trained psychologist, but there are times you need to stay out of it."
Toby kept his mouth shut until she withdrew her finger from his lips. "No sarcastic remark, are you feeling alright?" She asked moving her fingers to his forehead smirking at his expression.
"I was waiting till you gave me permission." Toby responded despairingly and he danced as Happy's fingers pinched his side. "I was going to say, you don't seem to care when I push into you."
"You are disgusting." Happy rolled her eyes, stood up on her toes and brushed her lips against his cheek and then brought her mouth to his ears, brushing her lips to the shell of his ear. She felt him shudder beneath her ministrations, "Besides, I said you had a habit for pushing into matters you don't need to, pushing into me definitely matters." Happy didn't have a moment to pull away because Toby picked her up into his arms and carried her off to his bedroom.
Effectively forgetting about the sad mess that was their genius liaison.
Walter came down to the garage about five minutes after the department of the team behaviorist and mechanic, and didn't bother a glance at Paige's desk. Mostly because of the time of day, but also he was distancing her from himself. It would only be for a few days, but it was how he was processing his feelings.
He moved into the kitchen and stopped short when he heard Paige call out, "Morning Walter." Walter looked back to her sitting at her desk and his gut reaction was to rush to her side, take her into his arms, and kiss her tears away. But he remained in the motion and walked further into the kitchen, after sent her a nod. He knew that Paige was a sentient individual and being overly emotional he knew she would follow him into the kitchen.
"Walter." Paige said cautiously when she entered the room, it sounded like her heart was breaking but the genius remained on track with his morning breakfast. Paige perched herself on the counter beside the toaster. She tried to engage him with looking into his eyes, trying to express her sadness and apology, but Walter kept his eyes down at the bread spreading the butter and jam.
He finished and set the bread on a plate and moved to the stove taking the steaming kettle from the stove top. Walter went about pouring a cup of tea. He had to go back to the part of the kitchen where Paige was sitting. He needed into the cabinet behind her head.
"Are you going to talk to me now?" Paige asked when he stood in front of her and remained. It had been a long two days since their last talk. Although a talk did not put enough emotion into the exchange. An argument does not satisfy the last conversation because that tends to be a disagreement between two individuals. This was more one sided. A hurtful exchange of words would be the most apt way to describe the situation.
*********88888888**********
Paige and Walter had been walking in to her apartment after a tough day at the office. The recent mission that had put Sylvester out of commission and ended with the death of the assailant. Paige had been miffed at his reactions to her and agent from interpol. It was like he seemed more attuned to the agent instead of Paige. He said it was all in her head, and that he did not need to process emotions like everyone. He didn't have that ability. These residual emotions seemed to plague all of their conversations. Paige would snap at Walter who then would turn around and insult her mental shortcomings in a passive aggressive way.
But the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back was one of the old adage that kept mucking up their relationship. Walter's involvement in Ralph's life. It had been decided weeks ago that Walter was getting to spend some quality time with the young genius. Ralph had been excited and even planned out the itinerary for the sleepover. It consisted of science experiments, geeky movies and a few video games.
But everything was canceled by Paige minutes before she was supposed to drop Ralph off with some excuse of Drew wanting to take Ralph to meet his paternal grandparents for the weekend. Paige had sent him a not so apologetic text stating plans had changed and that he was off the hook for the weekend. Walter knew she meant nothing inconsiderate but the dismissal was hurtful.
She then came over to the garage after dropping off Ralph, and had instigated a night in. As if she was the consolation prize, but smothering the real reason. Walter had been tense the moment she showed up at the garage which was two hours ago.
"Walter, are you alright?" Paige asked for the third time since her arrival. His muscles seemed to tense. They were sitting upstairs on the couch, and Paige noticed that Walter did not seem to be engaged with the movie. She had let him pick the flick and he seemed to be on edge.
"I am fine." He repeated and Paige winced at the words. She released a sigh. "Are you alright?"
"I guess."
He rolled his eyes, "You guess, as in you don't know how you are feeling, or are you just responding to placate my question?"
"Are you purposefully trying to be obtuse?" Paige answered with a question. Walter shifted a bit to look into her eyes.
"No." Walter said scrunching his eyebrows together. Paige wanted to soothe the muscles with her fingers but she kept her fingers on the couch.
"Could have fooled me." Paige muttered. The snark in her voice cut to his soul. "I don't know why you texted me to come over if you were going to be in a bad mood the entire time."
"I am not in a bad mood, I said I was fine." Walter responded to her accusations.
Paige stood up from the couch, stopping the movie since she had lost all interest. She grabbed the popcorn bowl since it was now empty and headed for the stairs for the kitchen. Walter followed closely behind. "I hate when you say you are fine, when you are obviously not fine." Paige snapped as they traipsed down the stairs.
"Why would I say I am fine if I am not." Walter queried.
"Because you are being a difficult child." Paige said extending her legs farther wanting to distance herself from Walter but knew there was no use. "I swear you do it because you know it bothers me."
"I didn't know it bothered you," Walter whispered quietly. "But it bothers me when you allow me to make plans with Ralph and you let Drew change the plans without discussing if it matters to me."
Paige had been standing at the sink when he finally spoke his feelings. She dropped the plastic bowl to the bottom of the metal basin. She pulled the lever to allow the faucet to run and fill the popcorn bowl. "What are you talking about?"
"Ralph." Walter responded. "He and I made these plans weeks ago. I had scheduled it with you and Drew. Just to make sure we would get to have the night. But you let Drew ruin it like always."
"Always, I do not let him ruin the plans always." Paige hissed. "It has only happened one other time. And this was the one time his parents were going to be in town for the next six months. I am sorry for not taking you feelings into consideration but your plans could be postponed."
"Did you even ask Ralph what he wanted?" Walter reacted defensively.
Paige guffawed at his question, "He is nine years old, Walter. He doesn't get to decide what he does for every minute of the day. I understand you were disappointed in this weekend's outcome but you will need to let it go. This is a good thing for Ralph. To build a bond with his paternal grandparents."
"I don't know why you do that." Walter sighed bringing his fingers to the bridge of his nose. He watched her facial expressions indicating her desire for him to continue. "Why you belittle my opinion when it comes to Ralph. Like you are Drew have some cosmological understanding because you are parent and have this child, like I don't have the ability to know because I don't have a child."
"Well, its because you don't." Paige replied. Walter reared his head back jerking as if her words had been bullets.
To his soul.
"I love Ralph." Walter whispered harshly. His voice hoarse with emotion and cracking under the weight of her response.
"But you are still not his father." Paige said and she immediately regretted the words the moment they left her mouth. Her heart broke when she saw how his eyes winced.
He turned on his heels and stalked from the kitchen.
**********8888888888************
That was two days ago. Paige had come to the garage each day, but each day Walter would say no more then three words to her at at time, and that was pushing the limit. He did not reach out to make any physical touches, which was again rough. Paige did not know how much she would miss his touch. The hand holding, the finger brushes, the kisses and hugs. The closest she got was a casual brush when he walked past in a different direction. It was only two days but she longed for even the slightest smile.
So sitting on the counter, with Walter right before, she decided she had enough of the silent treatment. "Are you?"
"No." Walter said, "I just want some honey and you are in the way." Paige's eyes reacted to the hurtful dull tone. His voice had always sound warm and inviting but since he walked out on the discussion two days ago he sound cold and distant.
"I'm sorry." Paige said sliding from the counter placing herself directly in front but he stepped back so he not invading her space. Paige was at her wits end, she reached forward and fisted his shirt in her hand. She yanked him forward and tried to bring her lips to his but he turned his head at the last second.
"No, Paige." He rejected her advance.
"Why?" A lone tear escaped her right eye. "You have not touched me for almost seventy two hours."
His smile was a sad smile. "I know."
"But why?"
"Because I am mad at you." Walter responded reaching on the side of her head which Paige thought he was going to caress her cheek, but was miffed when she closed her eyes and did not feel his skin on her own. "You hurt my feelings."
"So you thought you would retaliate by hijacking my own?" Paige asked. He shrugged his shoulders for an answer, it was a work in process on how to handle his feelings.
"You hurt me with your words, so I would return the favor to where you hurt most." Walter said explaining his logic. "You are tactile individual, so the deprivation from my touch was the only way I figured to get my point across."
"Well, I felt it, loud and clear." Paige said turning her face to the floor. "Is this what I had to say about you and Ralph?"
Walter hooked his fingers beneath her chin, so he could look in her eyes. "Yes. And the only way for me to understand your words was to distance myself. You put my reality into a tailspin when I am around you. I get dizzy and unable to see forward. I needed time to process a proper way. I usually cut people out of my life when they hurt me. Paige, I wouldn't be able to survive without you in my life."
"Oh, Walter." Paige sobbed. He relented and pulled her into his arms hoping to soothe the sadness from her form. "I didn't mean anything mean about the Drew being Ralph's dad."
"I know." He said rocking from side to side placing soft kisses to her hair. "But you have to understand that you do put me in a gray area with Ralph. You want me to discuss why he fails his geometry quiz and help build a relationship between Ralph and Drew. You want me to help pick out schools, watch him and help make different decisions that are fatherly positions. But you then turn around and throw those words in my face. So what is it Paige?"
"I know, it is just confusing." Paige said trying to cop out of an explanation. But Walter tried to pull away but she locked her hands behind his back and kept him pressed to her body. "I know, it is my fault. My life has been like a seesaw, at points I am soaring in the air, feeling like you, me and Ralph make all the sense in the world and then I come crashing to the ground. The friendship between Drew is tenuous. I don't want to have to go though custody battles so I want appease him at the same time I want to keep the relationship strong between you and Ralph. It is so confusing."
"Then don't put me in the situation." Walter said his voice cracking at his suggestion. He wanted to be in the middle, he wanted to help her navigate this road of parenthood with whatever he could get. Walter just didn't want to be pushed out the conversation. "I feel like you include me and I am part of your family, and then at times I am the dog that no one wants and is put outside in the rain to watch through the glass door at everything happening inside."
Paige pulled back removing her hands from his back and brought her hands to rest on his cheeks. She brushed her thumbs on his cheekbones. "Oh Walter. I am sorry." She brought herself to the tip of her toes and pressed a light kiss to his lips. Testing the theory. "I don't want you to feel this way. I don't want to keep you from the situation. Whatever this is between us is important to me. Your relationship with Ralph is important to me. His relationship with the team is important. But mostly you. You have done so much for me and Ralph." She kissed him again hoping to evoke some reaction since the first kiss was just a peck. After a second he started to respond, his lips pressing down to hers and his hands went to one side of her waist and the other to her cheek. Walter tilted her head, angling it in way to allow for a deeper kiss. He caressed his tongue against her lips seeking comfort and tasting tears. Her breath hitched and her lips parted. Walter took the initiative to sneak his tongue into her mouth to explore her mouth. Paige's tongue seemed to touch his own and Walter groaned into the kiss. He kissed her hard, bruising but at a slow tenuous speed. His hand on her waist flirted with the skin at waist as his finger traced lazily beneath her shirt. Walter removed his mouth and explored her sensuous neck that smelled of her citrus body wash. Paige shuddered when he found the sensitive spot just below her ear lobe.
"Walter." She whispered breathlessly and his lips smiled against her skin. He placed a few more kisses before recapturing her lips with his own.
The kiss intensified for a few more moments before he released her lips due to the lack of oxygen. "Am I forgiven?" Paige asked sincerely. He smiled and kissed her forehead and nodded. The pair set about making breakfast together easing back into the teasing gestures and a few more kisses.
********8888888***********
FIN.
I hope you all enjoyed. Sorry if it was rough, just wanted to give you a chapter to enjoy. Thanks to all the reviews. They do inspire me to write. I have been so delayed with this creative blockage and the holidays quickly approaching and work. So thanks for the patience and support. This goes out to ECLightningstorm. Your review got me to sit down and write this chapter out.