Paige McCullers was a pro at the waiting game.

Ever since she was little she'd been patiently waiting off to the side for good things to happen to her. It always worked. She waited for the bike she'd been pining after for Christmas for three years. She waited until she was good enough to get on the swim team. She waited for her parents to divorce so that they could be a little happier than they had been for years.

But the biggest thing she waited for was Emily Fields.

Paige would have waited for the rest of her life for Emily, she was certain. She had been head over heels for the girl for years, and just when she had accepted that she had no chance in hell with her, Emily surprised her. She swept Paige off her feet and turned her world on its axis. She showed her the type of affection and care that no one else ever had, and Paige finally felt like she had found a place to call home (because nowhere else felt like that, not even her own house or the pool).

When things between them ended because of the Samara thing (and god, did Paige want to kill Samara for even touching Emily, let alone dating her), Paige resigned herself to waiting again. She couldn't even look at another girl for months until Shana entered the scene, and even then she was simply a placeholder, something that Paige secretly hoped would make Emily jealous.

When Emily kissed her by her swimming pool in her backyard, Paige felt like she had gotten to her feet again. She knew that waiting it out would bring good things, just like she knew there was a missing part of her that only Emily could fill. Something as simply as Emily sending a crooked smile her way as they laid on her bed and studied sent shivers down her spine. Touching her shot heat through her body, and kissing nearly sent her into cardiac arrest. People couldn't understand how, after weeks of dating, Paige still acted like an excited puppy whenever Emily was around. Emily thought it was adorable, at least.

She had "I love you" constantly on the tip of her tongue, but she could wait. She could let Emily say it first, make sure she was comfortable; make sure things between them were stable.

She was phenomenal at the waiting game. It never let her down.