"There's those blue eyes."
Mike stared up at Paige, dazed as she came into focus, wondering if this was a dream. This felt so familiar, but something was off. Paige could barely stand to be in the same room with him. He was pretty sure he would never see her look at him this way again.
Like he mattered. Like she cared. He thought he destroyed all that. But maybe he hadn't. Paige was here. That was proof she still cared.
"You're a rat?"
His eyelids heavy, he closed his eyes. Maybe she was here but she didn't trust him. But he had to tell her about his assignment. All the secrets and the lies were killing him. Literally. The half answers he got from Badillo didn't help him fill in the blanks. He was going out of his mind second guessing every move Briggs made while trying not to draw suspicion. And in the meantime he was lying to Briggs' face. Lying to everyone he lived with.
"You're sitting down there lying your ass off to the only people who give a shit about you."
If Briggs was dirty, everyone at Graceland deserved to know. They were his friends. Coworkers. Family. They put their lives in his hands.
"You know, I - I know that for some reason you feel like you can't really be yourself in this house. But I just thought maybe, I mean, maybe if I showed you that I was on your side - that you could trust me."
"I know you're on my side. It's just complicated."
"It's more complicated when you keep it all inside."
"You wouldn't understand."
"But I'm trying to."
"Good, great."
"Okay, well you just keep doing everything the same, cause it seems to be really working out for you."
Paige said she wanted to understand. Wanted to know the truth. He knew he could trust her. He thought Paige would be able to handle it, but he couldn't have been more wrong.
Groaning, he tried to open his eyes, but he gave up and let them drift close again. His shoulder was killing him. The pain medication was making it impossible for him to stay awake.
"Hey, read me my rights."
"What?"
"Read me my rights."
"You have the right to remain silent..."
"Stay with me Mike," Paige pleaded, moving to sit next to him.
Paige was here. She was still here. He opened his eyes again when Paige reached for his hand, trying to make sense of things, wondering how long he had been out as he stared at her. Her hair was shorter. Blonder. Shouldn't it be longer? He swore her hair was longer. Darker. Her hair should be darker. Just how long was he unconscious? "Jangles. He - "
Paige's eyes widened and she squeezed his hand, "No, no, no. Not Jangles. Amber," Paige said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice but he picked up on it. "Mike what do you remember?" Not waiting for him to answer, she started to get up, "I'm going to get a doctor."
"Wait, I'm fine. Give me a minute."
"You're scaring me," Paige whispered, handing him a cup of water.
He took a few sips, before handing it back to her, wincing at the pain in his shoulder. His shoulder? Not his stomach. Moving his hand to where Jangles stabbed him, he felt nothing. No pain. No bandages. No stitches. Jangled stabbed him in the stomach, not the shoulder. But Paige said it wasn't Jangles.
Amber.
Amber?
Who the hell was Amber?
Amber. The bank robbery. The days events flooded to his mind. He went to get the money out of the vault instead of Paige and Amber pulled a gun on him. Shots were fired. "Briggs saved me. He shot her, didn't he?"
Nodding quickly, Paige squeezed his hand. "Yes, he did. You should get some rest."
"It doesn't make sense. We got the money, right? Where's the money?"
"The FBI has it. Mike, I need you to get some rest, okay? The doctor says you'll make a complete recovery, but you need to rest."
"Why are you here?" Not that he wasn't glad to see her. But know that he was well aware of what year it was, she was even angrier with him now than last summer when she just thought he was a rat. She suspected what he did. Suspected the truth about Lina. Suspected he lied to her about escaping. He thought he would've had more time. More time to cover his ass? Or more time to tell her the truth? Honestly, he wasn't sure. He knew she would figure it out, he just didn't think it would be this quickly. Sauce night was the first time she confronted him, although she doubted his story from the moment he told it. She suspected, but she didn't know for sure.
"You burned her body!"
Most of their conversations were filled with half truths and even more lies. They both knew they were lying, but they continued their game. Afraid a true confrontation would upset the delicate balance they needed to work together. Even if Paige hated him, she had to work with him, at least for the duration of this case.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. Things went south so quickly. He got in over his head and didn't know how to get out. The lies started piling up and there was no way out. He wasn't even sure coming clean would fix things. Maybe if he had told her the truth from the get go, instead of fabricating some story about Lina escaping. Maybe.
Paige met his question with silence and pulled her hand away.
Whatever truce they had going on, was clearly over now that he was awake and coherent. In order to get a straight answer out of her, he was going to have to provoke her into an argument. "I thought you'd be out celebrating that I was hurt."
Tracing her fingers along the bandage on his shoulder, but being careful not to touch his wound, she frowned. "I'm angry with you. You're lying to me, holding things back. But this - Mike, I never wanted this."
"You sure about that? I had a feeling you'd jump at the chance to shoot me. If Sid hadn't had his gun aimed at me the other day, you might've shot me yourself," Mike said, trying to lighten the mood.
"Maybe in the leg or something," Paige confessed, quickly meeting his eyes before looking away.
Maybe this would all be easier if Paige had been the one to put the bullet in him. Maybe then they could move forward. Leave everything in the past. Chalk it up to vigilante justice. Even though what he deserved more than a bullet.
"How long have I been out? No offense, but you look almost as bad as I do."
"Almost two days and these fluorescent lights aren't doing my skin any favors," Paige joked, motioning to her face.
"Looks good to me," Mike murmured. The rest of her words started to sink in and he cocked his head slightly, "You've been here the whole time?" Paige didn't answer and he took that he took as confirmation and he couldn't stop the hint of a smile that formed on his face. "You keep telling me to rest, you should take your own advice."
Paige jerked her hand away from his. "I'm not really going to shoot you if that's what you're afraid of. I know things are tense between us, but I can't leave you alone here. I don't trust anyone else to watch over you."
"What are you talking about?"
Paige sighed heavily and he could see her debating something in her head. Debating what to tell him. How much to tell him. Even with things this tense between them, he could still read her.
"I don't have any proof, but something isn't adding up. Amber was adamant about me bringing the money to the van. She told us she'd shoot anyone that didn't follow the plan. Remember?"
"One last thing, if you try and screw me, I'll leave you in the ground."
"Then Briggs insinuated something was going on with one of the hostages, but instead of handling it - he told me to handle it. That's when you volunteered to get the money."
"You know what, Paige? Keep an eye on this one, okay? He's up to something."
"No, I have to go get the money."
"He's on some hero shit, okay? He almost drew his gun and shot me out in the lobby."
"Stick to the plan."
"Sometimes plans change."
"Briggs changed the plan."
"I don't know what happened or what it means, but if what I'm suspecting is true..." Paige's voice trailed off as she blinked back tears before giving up and letting them stream down her face. "I can't deal with this right now. Mike, I can't - I don't want to believe Briggs almost tried to kill you. It's Briggs. Why would he do that? Why would Briggs try to kill you? This wasn't some plan that only Briggs knew about backfiring. This was deliberate. Calculated. Premeditated. Why would he try to kill you? What is he trying to hide? What do you know? What does he think you know? Mike - "
Paige started crying harder and he was helpless to comfort her. He wasn't even sure if she wanted his comfort, but he had to try. He couldn't even focus on what she was telling him right now, all he could think about was her. "I messed up. I messed up badly in so many ways and I understand if you can never forgive me. If what we have is in the past, I get that."
"Well, we used to have something special."
"I can't, Mike. I can't. I can't think about us right now. There's too much going on," Paige began, shaking her head in protest, each word coming faster than the last, as if now that she started she couldn't stop. "You're here, and everything is on the verge of falling apart. I'm tired and I'm stressed and I'm on edge and I want to go to sleep but all I see when I close my eyes is you bleeding on the floor of the bank. I can't. What happened to Graceland? To us? When did everything fall apart?"
"I don't know." Grimacing, he slid over to make room for her in the bed and held up the edge of the blanket in an invitation. Paige was on the verge of having a panic attack if he couldn't get her to calm down. "Get some sleep."
"Mike..."
"This won't change anything. I can't make a move and even if I tried, I'd probably bleed out. You need to rest, we both do. We'll take a timeout from reality, just for tonight. You can go back to hating me tomorrow. I might even let you shoot me."
Paige closed her eyes for a few moments before climbing in bed next to him, being careful of his injury as she curled up next to him.
"Paige, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for everything. I - "
"Mike, don't. We're on a timeout. Tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay." Mike held his breath as she moved closer, resting her head on his chest, afraid she would come to her senses and flee. Paige snaked her arm around his waist and he relaxed, wrapping his arm around her. They laid there in silence, not the awkward silence that accompanied most of their encounters since he got her away from Sulla, but not exactly a comfortable one either. He should probably close his eyes, but he was pretty sure the next time he woke up Paige would no longer be in his arms. If this was the last time he got to hold her like this, he wanted to remember it, not have it be a hazy memory due to morphine. Mike kept his eyes trained on the blonde in his arms, watching her breathing slow down and once he was sure she was asleep, he took a chance to press a kiss to the top of her head, before letting sleep take over.
THE END
A/N: If you noticed that the quotes were out of order and contradicting how they aired, that was intentional and hopefully it made sense as Mike figured out it was present day not a year ago.