Tag (aka Spoilers) to "Pizza Box". WARNING: Discussion of spanking.
"Hey Paige? Can I talk to you?"
"Now?"
"Well…yeah. You're not busy, are you?"
"Mike, I'm in the shower!"
"Yeah. So…can I?"
Paige sighed. "Fine, come in."
"I'm not looking or anything," Mike assured her.
"Thanks for being a gentleman," Paige shot back sarcastically. "Now what do you want?" she asked, a tease in her voice.
Mike looked behind him to make sure Paige's room was still empty then pulled the bathroom door shut and propped himself on the counter. "Um, well, I…um…"
"Seriously, Mike. Spit it out."
Mike took a deep breath. "So you know how we're not supposed to bring civilians upstairs?" he began.
Paige paused mid-hair rinse. "You didn't."
"Not quite all the way," Mike replied hesitantly.
"What does that even mean?" Paige asked.
Mike hesitated again, rethinking the wisdom of even admitting what he'd done. But since he'd come this far, "Abby was here earlier, and when I went to get something out of my room she followed me. We got as far as the second landing before I remembered she wasn't supposed to be up there." He paused for a moment. Then, "I think maybe I'm still distracted by the thing with Eddie," he explained lamely.
Paige resumed rinsing. "You know Briggs is gonna whip your ass for that, don't you?" she said, matter-of-factly.
"That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about," Mike ventured.
"Hey, he told you if you weren't ok with it, just tell him, right?" Paige said, a note of concern in her voice.
"Yeah, but I'm wondering, what's the alternative?"
Paige turned off the shower. "Towel." Mike handed her a towel over the shower curtain. "Go to my room. I'll be there in a minute," Paige ordered, softening a bit.
A few minutes later, Paige emerged from the attached bathroom wearing pajama pants and a tank top, both festooned with colorful cartoon fish.
"Nice jammies," Mike teased.
Paige raised an eyebrow. "You come into my bathroom at 11:30 at night to ask for my advice and now you're teasing me about my jammies?" she asked, a mock scowl on her face.
Mike grinned, and Paige settled herself on the bed. "What's this really about?" she asked knowingly. "I know you can handle anything Paul dishes out. And I know you know from last time, it's really not that bad." She studied Mike for a moment as he averted his eyes nervously. "Spill it."
Mike took another deep breath and let it out slowly, gathering courage to ask the question that had been haunting him all week. "Why did Briggs really kick Lauren out of the house?"
Paige bit her lip for a moment. "Come here," she said, patting a spot on the bed next to her. Mike scooted back and settled himself against the pillows. "You know that conversation Paul told you to have with him if you don't like his…methods?"
"Yeah?" Paige nodded slowly, waiting for Mike to catch on. "Lauren had it," he concluded after a moment. Paige nodded again. "So he just kicked her out?"
"No, this was a long time coming," Paige explained. "When Lauren told Paul she didn't want him to discipline her the way he does the rest of us, he was hamstrung. There were only so many things he could do to keep her, shall we say, indiscretions, off the books." Paige paused to pick her words carefully.
"I would never speak badly of anyone in this house, and I love Lauren like a sister. But she was impulsive. She never thought about consequences until it was too late. And she ended up putting Paul in some pretty tough situations."
Mike considered that for a moment. "So this thing with the Russians was the proverbial straw."
"Unfortunately, yes." Paige and Mike sat quietly for a while, each lost in their own thoughts. Finally she broke the silence. "So are you worried that when Paul finds out what you did, and you tell him you want a different punishment, he'll kick you out too?"
Mike shook his head. "No. I'm not planning to take the easy way out. I was stupid. I deserve whatever I get. Again," he admitted. "I'm just wondering what it would take for Briggs to do that to someone else."
"To you," Paige offered. Mike shrugged then nodded reluctantly. "Mike, 99% of what makes Paul go "dad" on someone has to do with something stupidly dangerous. And the other 1% is just being plain stupid. Like what you did the first time. And this time." she grinned.
Mike turned to face her, a matching grin on his own face. "And what you did?"
Paige shook her head, but laughed. "What I did was completely different from what you did. I never even came close to being as stupid as you were," she teased. Mike looked skeptical, and Paige rolled her eyes. "Fine," she gave in, "let's just say… I got involved."
"With what?"
"With whom," she corrected. "I met this really good looking guy at The Drop one night. We went out a couple of times, and then he started calling me and texting me all the time, and eventually, he started hanging out outside. Paul told me to get rid of him, but, well, did I mention he was really good looking?"
"And he turned out to be a serial killer," Mike suggested.
"No, he turned out to be married."
"Ouch!"
"You have no idea," Paige laughed. "His wife found out he was seeing me, and then I had two stalkers."
"That sounds…fun."
"To this day, Paul still won't tell me how he got rid of them, but somehow, he got them to leave me alone."
"And?" Mike prompted.
"And that's when "dad" and I had our first little chat," Paige finished.
"Did he wrestle you into it too?"
"No. Paul is nothing, if not a gentleman," Paige said fondly. "He sat me down, we talked about how important it is for us to do what he tells us to do, and how he's just trying to protect all of us. And then he offered me an alternative to writing me up for disobeying an order. It took me by surprise, but once I weighed my options, it just made sense." Paige glanced over at Mike. "It sucked, but it made sense," she repeated.
Mike sat quietly, not sure what to say. After a while, Paige interrupted his thoughts. "So does he know?" Mike shook his head. "Where is he anyway?"
"He said he was going for a walk."
Paige sat up quickly and faced Mike. "Are you sure he doesn't know?"
Mike looked confused, and slightly alarmed. "Yeaaah…why?" Paige gave him a look. "Paige? Why?" Mike insisted.
"Paul only goes for walks when he's pissed and needs to cool off. So either he knows, or something else got in line in front of you. If it's the former, well, good luck. If it's the latter," Paige warned, "I'd be waiting at the door when he gets back so you can tell him yourself, if I were you."
"You don't think maybe it would be better to hide somewhere? Like Tokyo?" Mike suggested.
Paige smiled. "No, but I like the way you think." She settled back against the pillows again. "Seriously, Mike. He'll take it a lot better if you confess than if he finds out second-hand. Paul values honesty above everything else."
"He lies for a living," Mike argued.
"And so do you. But not to family," Paige explained pointedly.
"How would he find out?" Mike asked.
Paige laughed. "If you think for one second that Paul Briggs doesn't know everything that goes on in this house…"
Mike stared at the ceiling for a while. "Hey, here's a thought," he suddenly said, sitting up.
"Hmm?" Paige asked warily.
"I could hide in Australia. I've always wanted to go to Australia," he said hopefully.
"Get out of my room."
"You could come," he offered.
"Out!"
"Or how about Tanzania?"
Paige smacked him in the head with a pillow, and they dissolved into a full-fledged pillow fight.
"I'm serious, Mike," she said after the battle had ended. "You'd better tell him yourself."
Mike sighed. "This is going to be bad."
"Maybe not," she reassured him. "I think given everything you've been through this week, he might go easy on you."
Mike sobered, a lump forming in his throat for about the 25th time since he'd watched Eddie die. "Given everything I've been through this week, I'm not sure I want him to," he admitted.
Paige put a hand on his cheek, noticing for the first time that the young agent was swimming in guilt. She patted him gently. "Go," she ordered with a kind smile.
Mike brought his hand up to meet hers and squeezed it appreciatively. "Thanks."
"Any time," she answered. "Well," she added with a laugh, "maybe not any time."