Author's Note: I swear I sat down to work on White Flag. This story came out instead.
I wrote this because I still have a problem with the writers having Briggs attempt to kill Mike one week, and then have Paige do the exact same thing the next week.
I wrote it because I think Zelanski was robbed of the epic death I heard Jeff Eastin wanted to give him. (Honestly, if Sid had set a trap for Mike and Zelanski had gone instead and died, it would have given Zelanski more purpose and would have shown us immediately why we should all hate Sid).
I wrote it because I am in love with Paige Arkin and everyone always turns against her so quickly when she's (justifiably) angry with Mike instead of being his doting girlfriend is bs.
I wrote it because Lakergirl4life, paperwings075, wannabesewcrafty and others are killing it with their fanfictions and I'm jealous because I'm lazy and uninspired.
Mostly I wrote it because soon Season 3 will air and I will have to accept the writer's canon, but until them I am free to live in my little Pike world.
The small apartment is windowless and grim, yet Paige is glad she's not at Graceland right now.
At least the silence here isn't laced with hostility over what she did. The entire house now knows about her selling out Sid to Mike. Briggs had told everyone as soon as he got back. Mike Warren was dead and it was all her fault. It was like everyone was screaming at her at once, followed by a bitter silent treatment. Paige doesn't know which was worse.
But now she's finally alone in the cheap small apartment that rents week to week, accepts cash, and doesn't ask questions. It was the best option she could find on such short notice. The place is a dive, but it will do for now.
"Hey you're back."
"Yeah, you were sleeping. I just went out to get you some basic supplies." Paige held grabbed the toilet paper and beer out of the bag to hold up to display.
In a small bed that takes up half the room is the now infamous Mike Warren. The worst thing that ever happened to Paige. He forces himself to a seated position, trying to smooth his rumpled hair and wipe the evidence of sleep from his eyes. He looks so small and vulnerable, but at least he's alive.
"Beer and toilet paper. What more could I need?" Mike asks with amusement.
"I got some food too. Nothing fancy. Just some stuff that doesn't require a lot of work." Paige says as she unpacks the bag and loads the refrigerator.
"Thanks. I'm not hungry." Mike says, feeling useless.
"You will be. You need to get your strength back." Paige says, as the two exchange in the polite small talk while avoiding all the other issues.
"Yeah, I figure another few days and then I should be able to move without disturbing the stitches too much."
"Don't push it Mike. There's no rush. Everyone's in panic mode right now."
"I know. I should be doing something. Never let a crisis go to waste."
"Give yourself a break. We haven't even planned the funeral yet." Paige says dryly. "Not that I'll be invited."
"They can't indite you for anything. All you did was reported the whereabouts of a fugitive to the police. Sid made it look like an accident. You're safe."
"Well except for the houseful of armed roommates who think I'm worse than Judas, yeah I'm safe."
"How are you holding up?" Mike asks, sounding concerned.
"I'm ok. I just still can't believe anyone bought that I would actually kill you. Honestly am I that much of a bitch?" Paige cracks the cap off the bottle of beer and crosses the floor and sits on the edge of the small bed.
"Do you really want me to answer that?" Mike asks with a grim grin as he ducks to avoid her swat, his injured side objecting to the quick movement. "Careful! It's not all fake you know."
"You'll live." Paige rolls her eyes handing him the beer.
"Seriously? I'm on pain killers here." He gives her a look like he thinks she must be joking. She's DEA. She should know better.
"Please, what you're on is essentially kids tylenol. Drink the beer." Paige shoves the beer into his hand and walks back across the small apartment floor to finish loading the limited groceries she got in the fridge and grab a beer for herself.
"Thanks for getting the groceries. You didn't need to." His voice sounds hesitant. Like he's still not sure how to talk to her. Not when it's about something other than work.
"Please. You're quite helpless right now. I'm just surprised the plan worked. How did you know we could trust Zelanski?" Paige asks as she crosses back to sit on the edge of the bed Mike's propped up in. There's no other furniture to sit on in the small sparse apartment she's holed Mike up in. "He had every reason to hate you. You kicked him out of his room, then the house, fired him from the case-"
"...Stole his girl…" Mike adds, his eyes burning intensely in Paige's direction.
"Like I was saying, you're not exactly on his list of favorite people." Paige says in a hurry, trying to ignore his last comment and Mike's stare. Her and Mike hadn't talked about what they used to be. It had never officially ended, but it was pretty clear it was over. She thought that was mutual with all the fighting recently, but when he looks at her like that...
"How could you know he wouldn't rat you out? Especially since it's still on the books that you were the cause of the Solano massacre." Paige asks moving from the edge of the bed to sit cross legged on the floor beside it. It somehow felt safer here.
"Zelanski appreciates loyalty." Mike mutters matter of factly, sipping from the beer in his hand.
"After all you did, why would you think he would be loyal to you?"
"Not loyal to me." Mike shakes his head, "He'd be loyal to you."
Comprehension dawns on Paige, because it hadn't been Mike who had asked Wayne to do what he did. It had been Paige. Before Paige had gone to give up Mike's location to Sid, she had made one very important stop. She had gone and asked Wayne to risk everything on an off the books mission for Mike. He had gotten to the hospital before Sid. He had changed Mike's chart. Gotten him the fake breathing machine. He had hijacked Mike's computer controlled heart monitor and controlled it from another room.
"He could have said no." Paige says quietly. There hadn't been a backup plan. There hadn't been time for one. If one thing had gone wrong, Mike could have died. He was still in danger if anyone found out.
"No, he couldn't have. He couldn't have said no to you." Mike says, and even though he tries to say it in an analytical way, there is a jealous tone in admitting that Paige had other admirers.
"How can you be so sure?"
Mike smiles and sadly looks at the beer in his hand, "Because I never could."
Paige closes her eyes, remembering all the times she begged Mike to close down Sylmar and he refused her. His memory is clearly different than hers, but she doesn't want to dwell on the past right now. She needs to get passed all this and find a way to truly forgive Mike.
Paige hadn't for one second believed that Mike had killed all those people at Solano's house. She knew he was deadly. She knew he was desperate to get Sid. She thought she wanted to get Sid too, but it was a low priority compared to her girls. She never understood Mike's obsession, but now, seeing the aftermath of what he did, killing his own partners, she understood.
Hearing Mike admit Lina was dead was painful, but it was the closure Paige needed. She didn't know if her and Mike would ever get back to what they had, but seeing him lying there bleeding out on the floor of the warehouse, she knew she didn't want to lose him. She knew that he hadn't caused Lina's death, that he had been inside that place because of her.
She knew he had covered it up in attempts to keep the place open and get Sid. At the time she didn't understand. She still doesn't agree with his methods, but she now understands what is driving Mike to get Sid. It's not career advancement. It's so much more.
Sid is the monster Paige feared Mike was becoming, and now she wants the bastard just as bad as Mike. She wants to put him behind bars for all the damage he's done. To the LAPD. To Graceland. To whatever it was that Mike and her might have had together.
She can't get back at Solano, or Sal, or any of the others that tortured her when she was in that place, but she can get Sid.
And she will.
They will, now that her and Mike are back on the same team.
Unfortunately the two of them don't know who else is on their team right now. Briggs is not trustworthy. Jakes and Charlie both have loyalties to Briggs. Johnny has loyalty to Briggs and Solano's daughter. Trusting Wayne was a risk and Paige isn't sure she can ask that of him again.
The two sit in silence, lost in their own thoughts until their beers are empty.
"Are you hungry?" Paige takes his empty beer from him to throw in the trash.
"Nah, I'm ok." Mike says, slouching down in the bed. He's still pale and Paige wishes she could have kept him in the hospital a little longer, but it wasn't possible.
"You should eat something." Paige says, "Here I got you a box of those cookies you stash in your drawer but never eat."
"It's a willpower thing." Mike groans, adjusting in bed. "I just like knowing I could eat them if I wanted to."
"Well right now you need to eat, and these are as good as any." Paige perches on the edge of the bed and hands him what she knows is his favorite cookie. He eyes her warily, and she taunts him gently, "Come on Princess. You'll still fit in your prom gown. You need to eat something. It would be a shame to put all that effort into faking your death just to have you starve yourself."
Mike pouts, but takes the cookie from her and weakly attempts to eat it and then accepts the glass of water she gives him.
"Thank you." He finally says weakly. Paige isn't sure if he's thanking her for the cookie, or for saving his life but either way she feels a blush rise in her cheeks.
"Mike?" She asks quietly.
"Yeah?"
"Everyone believed I killed you so quickly." Her voice is ashamed, and Mike rolls over on her uninjured side to stare at her with those non judging eyes. Just listening to her.
With a shaky breath, Paige keeps talking, unable to look at him. "And you knew. You knew no one would question it. That they would just buy it so quickly that I would want you dead. I know I was mad but… Did you ever think… Did you ever really think I might actually… That I could actually do it?"
Mike pauses for a moment, gathering his thoughts on how he wants to answer this, he finally asks, "You remember last summer? When I was in the hospital and I finally told you about my investigation into Briggs?"
"Oh God, are you going to replay all the times I've acted horrible?" Paige starts to wipe her tears away with a bitter laugh.
"No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that I told you about my investigation, the worst thing about me, and you had every right to be mad at me… but you didn't turn me in. You kept my secret." Mike assures her.
Paige skoffs and averts her eyes from Mike's. It's true she'd kept his secret, she doesn't know why, but she had been so horrible to Mike about it. She's been so cruel to him again and again and he just keeps coming back for more. Sensing she's berating herself, Mike reaches out and takes her hand gently, bringing her back to the moment.
"Look, being in Graceland has challenged every truth I've ever had faith in. About myself, about the job, about the world… but it has never made me question my faith in you." Mike promises her.