Tag to 3.02, "Chester Cheeto." Missing Paige/Charlie scene set after the end of the episode.
"Hey," Charlie said tentatively, leaning in the doorway, a coffee mug pressed between her two hands, her oversized sweatshirt barely covering the shorts she'd put on as soon as she'd gotten back to the house.
"Hey," Paige replied brightly, her eyebrows raised slightly, as if to ask what the other woman needed.
"Can I sit down?" came the response, and Paige nodded, crossing the room and settling on her bed, patting the purple cover beside her. She said nothing, waiting expectantly for Charlie to say what was on her mind.
Normally, Charlie was pretty forthcoming with whatever she had to say, but the silence between them was longer than usual as Charlie sat collecting her thoughts, taking a sip of her coffee and placing it neatly between her two hands again.
"I just wanted to thank you for dropping me off at the clinic today. Somehow, I knew I wouldn't get any judgment from you," she finally spoke, looking earnestly at Paige. She didn't need to say that if it had been any one of the guys – barring Jakes, perhaps – she would have gotten a lecture about even considering having an abortion. What was it about men, Paige wondered, that made them think they really had any right to comment or judge a woman for terminating a pregnancy? If anything, she admired that Charlie had recognized that now was not the time – nor the place – for her to become a mother.
"Of course," Paige finally said with a slight shrug. Federal agencies were still a boys club. Women in these places had to stick together. And once Lauren had left, she and Charlie had grown closer, though not nearly as much as she'd have liked. But she had been busy with the sex trafficking ring, and Charlie had been dealing with her own shit, and their friendship had taken a backseat to everything else that had been going on.
"Paul was …" she paused, stopping to collect her thoughts, "really upset that I'd done it. Like I was supposed to get his fucking permission first. But there's a reason I asked him to pick me up afterwards, and not drop me off."
"He wouldn't have taken you," Paige supplied, and Charlie nodded, heaving out an annoyed sigh.
"Men," Paige added with a slight smile, and Charlie rolled her eyes and chuckled in response. Paige was glad to see her smiling again, and she had to admit, if she'd just had an abortion, she might have been in a somber mood, too.
They sat together in silence for a few moments when Charlie spoke again.
"I didn't do it." Her voice was soft, and if Paige hadn't watched her mouth moving, she might have told herself she'd imagined it.
"What?"
"I was sittin' in there, working on this form you gotta fill out, and I just kept thinking about this … this thing, you know?" Paige looked at her intently, and Charlie recognized that as a sign to continue. "How many more chances am I gonna have to be a mother? Paul is the most serious relationship I've had. How fucked up is that?" She chuckled as she said it, but Paige could tell that it was a front, a mask she wore to hide the fact that she was hurting.
Not for the first time, Paige wondered if she was the only person in the house who could truly read Charlie, to see the way she put on a brave face every day and faced the world. She'd done it herself, many times, been strong when she was feeling weak.
"And you know what the most fucked up part is?" Charlie added, pausing only a second to raise her mug to her lips before continuing, "I didn't even tell him when he came to pick me up that I hadn't done it."
Paige looked at her incredulously. "Charlie …" she trailed off.
"I know! But he was so damn self-righteous about the fact that I hadn't told him I was even going to the clinic, and I was so pissed off that he had the balls to sit there and lecture me about my own goddamn body that I couldn't bring myself to tell him."
"I mean … he's gonna find out eventually," Paige supplied, unable to provide anything further.
"I'll tell him. Eventually," came the response, and Charlie leaned over to put her mug on the nearby dresser and scooted closer to Paige, bowing her head conspiratorially. Taking the hint, Paige also leaned closer, brushing her hair behind her ear and giving Charlie her full attention.
"I'm not ready to come off of field work. There's some shit I gotta take care of. Then I'll tell him."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"I can't leave this one to someone else. You know that feeling, don't you? Where you just gotta get some guy? You wouldn't let someone else do it. This one, I gotta do. I gotta," Charlie implored, and the look in Paige's eyes told Charlie all she needed to know. She understood.
"Okay," Paige said simply, adding, "I won't say anything. But you'd better be careful. If you're anything like me, the ones you gotta get are usually the shittiest, most scum-baggiest ones out there."
"Real piece of shit," Charlie confirmed, shaking her head slightly. "What the hell am I going to do when you leave this house? You're going to leave me with all these men who think it's their job to coddle me and treat me like I'm some delicate flower."
"I'm not leaving," she said quickly, the decision she'd had weighing on her mind for the last several days finally settled at the sound of desperation in Charlie's voice.
"You seem pretty sure." Charlie tried to hide the surprise in her tone, but she hadn't expected Paige to relent so easily, or to sound so certain when she'd been packing up the contents of her room for the last few days.
"I still have one good friend in Graceland," came Paige's response, and a smile played at Charlie's lips as she leaned forward, grabbing her friend in a tight hug.
"Yes you do," Charlie mumbled into Paige's hair, giving her a tight squeeze before letting her go. "Now come on, I'm gonna help you unpack before you change your mind again." Paige merely shook her head and picked up her suitcase, laying it on the bed and beginning to rifle through it.
"Thank you," Charlie said after a few moments, her hands grasping a sweatshirt she'd pulled out of Paige's bag, her eyes shining with unshed tears.
"For?"
"For staying. For listening. For not judging me," she responded, putting the shirt down on the bed.
Paige smiled slightly, and looked almost wistfully at Charlie, responding, "It isn't my place to judge you. We've all done some fucked up things." She nodded her head down, slightly, guilt threatening to consume her. "I'm standing in a pretty big glass house right now, you know?"
"Wanna talk about it?"
"Not yet," Paige responded, shaking her head. "I will, though."
Charlie looked at her pointedly. "Well you come to me," she directed, and Paige had to stifle a laugh at how much Charlie already had the mom thing down.
"You can bet on it," Paige affirmed, and as they returned to unpacking and joking lightly with each other, Paige felt a small piece of her heart begin to mend itself. Perhaps, with a few more reminders of all the good things in Graceland, she might just be able to find herself again and be all right.
I just love their friendship, okay?