Yes, yes, another WIP. I've been planning this one a while and I thought since I'm updating Season Five one to two times a month (so story follow that one if you don't want to miss anything) and starting to near the conclusion of A Conflict of Parallels, it was time to trot this one out. A few of you will have seen this title and known exactly what this is, but I hope those of you who are learning about this fic with the publication of chapter one are intrigued, and I hope all of you enjoy it!

Six dates.

Walter studied himself in the mirror, straightening his collar and exhaling deeply, his cheeks puffing out. He looked handsome; it wasn't vanity, just self – awareness. This is what he looked like when people commented. This is what he looked like when Happy sarcastically called him a "babe magnet" with the sarcasm being related to her complete lack of attraction to him, not an insult to his appearance itself. More like a Paige magnet, Toby had said once, smirking in his wife's direction. Paige certainly had stammered when she saw him that night, even though it was hardly the first time he'd been dressed up in her presence.

That wasn't the reaction he expected to get tonight, but there was a degree of dress – for – the – job – you – want at play here. One thing he knew – Paige knew it too – was that a reason their relationship had ended was because both of them started taking the other for granted. She developed expectations with unrealistic time for him to reach them, and he made That's Just How I Am excuses for things that he could help but didn't consider important enough. That was the main thing that had to change this time around. He had to work on their relationship every day.

He had six dates. Six dates to show her. Six dates to prove to her what he had failed to prove in eleven months.

It was a two – way street, of course. She emphasized when they set the terms of this plan that both of them had to do better. She'd owned up to the ways she'd let the relationship collapse.

So they agreed: they would go on six dates, alternating who set the plans. Three dates with an itinerary by Walter, three dates with an itinerary by Paige. One date per week for six weeks, with a maximum of one phone call per day for the first two weeks. No restrictions on texting. After that, their separate lives could come together again, at least in part – they could call when they wanted to, and he could see Ralph, if he wished. At the end of the sixth week – or rather, at the end of the sixth date – they would evaluate where they were. Then there would either be a date seven, where they would fall more or less into where they left off, both of them promising to continue to work on themselves and their relationship, or they would go their separate ways and not try again, no matter who had regrets or weak moments.

Six dates to sink or swim.

They were terms Walter agreed to, that he had no reservations about. In fact, he liked that they had it worked out like this – relationships had no rubric or guidelines and this was something to that effect, something he could process and understand while they dipped their toes in again. However, he knew there was more pressure on him than on her.

He believed, no, he knew that she was his soul mate, the only one in the entirety of the universe for him. He didn't care how bad they fought, how big of a misunderstanding they had, he would always want to fight – for them. His pride would get in the way in the short term, as it had during their separation, but when it came to the long haul he couldn't think of anything he wouldn't do – or at least try his damndest to – to keep them together. That had been his problem the first time around. He had let himself be lazy and careless because he thought that she would call him out, like she had before, and then he would work on it again and they would be fine.

That was, perhaps, the biggest difference between the two of them. She was his first love. He was her second. She'd been betrayed and strung along so much by Ralph's father and she'd waited and believed and blamed herself and it had taken her years to accept that he had left her, but when she did, she got strong and hard and now wouldn't hesitate to walk away from something she thought might burn her before it actually did. She had the experience and knew it was possible to recover from losing the person you thought you would spend the rest of your life with. And while knowing her meant he knew it was possible, he still couldn't entirely believe it.

He couldn't imagine ever getting over Paige Dineen.

These dates were, in addition to everything else, Paige Dineen trying to see if it was possible to get over him.

He was sure she was nervous, too. She still loved him. She'd told him so the night they agreed to all of this. He had come to understand, during their time apart, that love wasn't enough. Not the feeling, anyway. Love was more than a feeling. It was a verb. If they wanted this to work, they would have to work. They had to both want to. They did both want to, they'd promised when they had made these decisions.

They had six dates to prove that to each other.

He looked at his watch. Their reservations were at eight, which meant he had to leave within five minutes – no, four now – in order to pick her up and get them there in time. He could only nervously fidget in front of the mirror for so long. It was time to go.

It was time for Date One.