~ ~ If you don't keep up with casting information, this fic contains vague spoilers for 2.20. ~ ~

I was given the following prompt: Hi I was wondering if you could write something where the new guy that's coming on asks Paige out and she's thinking about going to dinner with him and Walter decides to try and stop the date from happening by telling Paige he wants to be with her? (Name withheld by request.)

"So what are you going to do?"

"I think I'm going to get him a bigger cage. He's not old by any means but it's good for him to move around more if he wants to when we aren't here."

Toby picked up the heaviest book on Walter's desk and dropped it back down onto the surface for the sound effect. Ferret Bueller darted off the table. "Not the ferret, Walter. What are you going to do about Paige?"

He frowned, feigning confusion. "I don't follow."

"Yes you do."

"If you are referring to Agent Armstrong asking Paige to dinner, I don't know what exactly you think I should be doing. I am not involved in this outing."

"But she might not go," Toby said. "You heard her. She said 'maybe'."

"She smiled."

"She's a nice person!" Toby threw up his arms. "And she likes him, as a friend. She's only considering seeing if there's more there because she thinks you don't want to be with her."

"She doesn't think that," Walter said quickly. "We had a conversation. We both know how we feel about each other. We just ultimately..."

"Yes, you decided to be professional colleagues, we know. But since then? You two have been making leading statements all year to each other, just you get interrupted by Ralph or Cabe or you refuse to pick up what she puts down because you're trying to make some brilliant point about potential downsides of adaptation." Toby put his hands on the desk, leaning down to get to almost eye level with his friend. "She said maybe because he's not who she wants. If you go over there and ask her out, she won't even try to see Armstrong through a romantic lens. She'll be yours faster than you can say her name and you know it would feel amazing to be hers."

"Walter."

His heart sank. She usually smiled when he showed up at her door.

"What's wrong?" She asked, and he relaxed a little. She had just left the garage forty five minutes before, she probably barely beat him here. And she did immediately step back and hold the door open, inviting him inside, just as she always did. He'd chalk her lack of smile up to the timing.

"I know that he asked you out," he said, mentally kicking himself for leading with that. But he remembered the previous fall, when Paige had told him of her feelings for him. I really need to stay on topic, or I'll never get through this.

"Yes." Paige said, "he did." She folded her arms, looking at him almost expectantly. "I told him I'd think about it."

"Don't go out with him," Walter blurted. Paige cocked her head, and he looked down. "Go out with me."

Her eyebrows shot up. He thought he saw the smallest hint of a smile on her face, ever so briefly, but he could just as well have imagined it. He probably did imagine it.

She spoke. "Yeah?"

She looked...excited. Maybe he was imagining that too. "Well...I..." he stammered, "We have feelings...for each other, don't we?" He scratched the back of his neck, glad she didn't answer because he wasn't finished.

"I know we agreed not to act on how we feel because it would risk the team but...maybe we were wrong. Or maybe we were right at the time, but things changed. Either way..." He hesitated. "I know this isn't the best timing, given your...your invitation from Armstrong, but..." He looked at her, caught her eyes, God, he hoped he wasn't too late, "I see Happy and Toby. They work, astonishingly, better now than they did before, and I wouldn't have thought that to be possible. And they've both told me that they've never been happier in their lives. And...I...I just..." He pressed his lips together, "I want to be as happy as they are. And I want you to be just as happy, or even more so, I'd certainly do my best." He gave a small shake of his head, and shrugged as he took the plunge. "And I can't see another way to be that happy other than me asking you to be my girlfriend and you saying yes."

She was silent, staring at him, and he felt his stomach continue to knot. She'll be yours faster than you can say her name. Walter hated every second that passed, even though it was only a few. His nature was telling him to keep talking, provide more information. But he'd learned that that wasn't always best. This wasn't a sales pitch. She wasn't a customer.

"Are you sure?" She asked carefully.

He nodded. "I want to be with you. And those reservations we had...I don't think they apply, not anymore. I've learned a lot this past year, you know." He was rambling, exactly what he had just prided himself for avoiding. I'm sorry. I still don't know how to do this. But you make me want to try. He mentally kicked himself again. See? That was good, and honest. Just say that! The voice in his head that encouraged him wasn't his own. It was hers, or maybe Toby's, Ray's, Cabe's, Megan's. Maybe even Janice's. All of them had, in different ways, encouraged him to grow. "I'm sorry," he said, looking down briefly, his voice heavy. "I know I still don't really know how to do this. But I want to try for you. And I think if you let me try..." he shook his head. "I would give it my all."

She definitely had an inkling of a smile now, and it was accompanied by a small nod. "Okay," she said, her smile becoming full-fledged. "Yeah."

He raised his eyebrows slightly, making his delight evident. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," She affirmed. "Yes. I would really, really like that." She tipped her head to the side. "So..." she asked, a hint of flirtation in her posture and tone, "where are you going to take me to dinner?"

"Well, Escala is probably booked for tonight," he said, "but...do you want to try that new seafood place uptown?"

"Sounds good," she nodded again. "So," she continued, looking equal parts excited and apprehensive, "we're doing this, huh?"

He nodded, biting the right half of his lower lip. He tried to think of a response, but all he could do was break out into a grin, that grin, that dorky grin he sometimes felt self-conscious of. But she seemed to like it.

"I should go," he said suddenly, breaking posture and taking a step toward the door. "I know you have to do the carpool today."

"Yeah, yeah," she said, glancing at the time display on her oven. "I'll come back by the garage later, then."

"No," Walter said quickly. "Let me pick you up."

"Okay." He saw her employing the tactic of pressing her lips together as she smiled to not seem over eager. "What time?"

"Maybe...seven?" He figured he'd be able to get somewhere for eight.

"Yeah, sure."

"Great." He nodded again. They'd both been doing a lot of nodding. It was a strange one, the feeling he had. He and Paige were going on a date – a real date, and even though he knew she was just as into him as he was her, he suddenly felt awkward, like a teenager who had just asked a girl out for the first time. He shouldn't feel awkward. It was Paige.

He took some comfort in the fact that she didn't seem to know where to proceed at the present time either. Better to head out, come back tonight. It won't be awkward tonight. It just feels awkward now because you're technically a couple but haven't acted like one. Odd. That voice in his head sounded like it was his.

"Oh, Walter?"

"Hmmm?"

She spoke as he was glancing at the door again, and he stopped. She took a step closer to him, closing the gap to about three feet. "You may not think you know what to do and sometimes you don't, but...you're doing better than you might think."

They looked at each other for a long moment, in the way they did when they weren't speaking, but weren't silent. "I'll see you tonight," he said, opening her door.

Another nod, another smile. "See you tonight."