Paige sensed his presence more than heard it.
She looked up from her desk-even in the modern, high-tech world she inhabited, paperwork remained a burden-and saw him standing a few feet away.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"Not long," Walter said, taking a few cautious steps towards her.
But when he saw her smile, he seemed to relax, and mirrored her expression.
The Garage was abnormally quiet that afternoon- Happy and Toby had taken Ralph to Knottsberry Farm (an amusement park), Sylvester was checking out a new comic book store, and Cabe was on assignment in San Diego- So that left Paige and Walter (to Toby's excitement) alone.
For a majority of the day, Walter had been upstairs, working on something.
What it was exactly, was anyone's guess.
Paige had been catching up on paperwork, as she had been trying to motivate herself for the past week to do so.
"Are you almost done?" Walter asked shyly, clasping his hands behind his back.
Paige looked down at the small stack of papers in front of her, then met his gaze again.
"Um, about. Why?"
Walter glanced around the Garage.
"I was-I was, um, wondering if you wanted to, um, if you would like to go to the beach? I was going to collect some samples for a project I'm working on, and it would be more enjoyable if you went, too."
And then he quickly added, "But you don't have to if you don't want to."
Paige looked at her documents once more, then rose to her feet.
Smiling she said, "I would love to."
They took Paige's car, with the windows rolled down all the way.
Walter smiled at Paige, who was laying on her propped-up arms, a peaceful expression on her face.
Walter wished she would look like this more often.
Carefree, relaxed, and young.
(Not that she looked old most of the time.)
She looked as if all the problems in the world were far away, and for this moment, they were.
They arrived at the beach a few minutes later, and Walter was disappointed to see Paige being disturbed.
He would have driven around all of Southern California if Paige would've remained like she was moments ago.
But she hopped up as if her seat was on fire, slamming the door.
Before Walter knew what she was doing, Paige had kicked off her sandals and was literally almost skipping through the sand.
Scratch the peaceful expression in the car, Paige looked even happier here.
"I haven't been to the beach in forever. I feel like it's has been calling my name."
She smiled.
If this had been a few years ago, Walter would've argued that the beach isn't alive, so it couldn't 'call her name', but it was 2017, not 2014, and Walter understood figure of speech.
Walter took his samples quickly, placed them in the car, and hightailed it back to where he had left Paige.
He hadn't missed much; she was still standing almost motionless in the water, letting it wash up onto her feet.
She turned to face him, and held out her hand.
"Come feel it."
Walter shook his head and grinned.
"No thanks," he replied.
"Fine," Paige fake-pouted. "I'm coming to you."
She slowly walked back into the dry sand and grabbed Walter's hand.
"Come on," she begged.
Even though Walter would do anything for Paige, even die for her, he did not want to get in the ocean.
So when Paige saw this, she smirked and ran back to the water.
Oh good, Walter thought. She's given up.
But she had done quite the opposite.
Before Walter could brace himself, Paige had taken a handful of water and splashed it in the genius' face.
He immediately froze, not knowing how to react.
But when Paige started to laugh, Walter snapped out of it, and calmly walked to the ocean.
He reached down and scooped up some water and threw it at Paige.
She squealed, and in return, splashed him back.
This continued until they were both soaked to the skin, but they didn't mind.
They knew that the sun would dry their clothes pretty quickly, and they were more focused on each other, anyway.
As Paige walked back to Walter, she hit something, and before Walter knew what was happening, Paige started to fall.
He saw her terrified expression as gravity pulled her down.
But Walter caught her and pulled her to him just before she could land on a very sharp rock.
She sighed in relief and held onto him tighter.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"No problem."
Although she was fine, Paige chose to remain in Walter's arms for a little while longer.
Walter didn't mind one bit.
But soon, too soon, she pulled back, and Walter immediately missed the contact.
"Wanna walk?" she asked, boldly holding out her hand for him to hold.
Walter smiled and gratefully took it.
The pair slowly made their way over rocks and around half-built sandcastles made earlier that day.
The sun was beginning to set, and Walter knew Paige would want to get back to the Garage soon.
He was disappointed, as he wanted stay here with Paige forever.
Whether gravity was stronger or Paige was extra-clumsy that day, somehow she ended up toppling over another rock, this time on the beach.
Walter didn't have time to react, pull her up, or pull away, so he got pulled down with her.
They landed in a heap, with their limbs entangled.
The two exchanged a glance, then burst out laughing.
"Well, I'm being a klutz today," Paige said, continuing to giggle.
They remained in the sand, looking up at the sky, which was turning into beautiful shades of orange, red, and pink.
"It's so beautiful," Paige breathed.
"I hadn't noticed," Walter said nonchalantly.
Paige turned to face him.
"What-"
"I'm laying beside something far more stunning," he interrupted.
A smile slowly spread across her face.
"Walter-"
Just as calmly, but in a lower voice, Walter said, "I love you."
He said it as he would anything he normally would say, like, "It's supposed to be warm today", or "I'm hungry".
Paige looked as if she might faint, and Walter was sure that if she had been in a chair, she would have fallen out. (And not just because she was super clumsy that day.)
She propped herself up with her elbows and looked at the genius, but his gaze remained transfixed on the darkening sky.
"Walter."
He finally tore his eyes away and met Paige's circles of dark brown, which were starting to fill with tears.
"You-you love me?" she whispered, quickly wiping away a tear that had managed to fall.
Walter raised his eyebrows in disbelief.
"Of course I do," he said in the same tone.
He turned his head to look back at the sunset, but felt his head being swiveled around by a pressure on the side of his head.
It was Paige, who was turning his head so they could stare into each other's eyes.
"Walter."
She softly kissed him.
"I love you, too."
And then she pulled him up to his feet, and walked over to the ocean.
And they started splashing each other again.
~