Author's Note: I've been so busy recently I haven't even seen the new episode the whole way through. I also haven't had time to edit this so go easy on me. Quick 3 chapter story. *fingers crossed* it will be done before the next episode airs.
Paige is exhausted as she parks her car and walks up the stairs to the safety of Graceland. She can almost hear her sweat pants calling to her from inside. She was supposed to meet up with Kyle for a late dinner tonight, but she has already texted him to cancel. After chasing down a mobster for eight blocks in six inch stripper heels and tackling him to the ground, she just wants to take a shower and lie on the couch watching some bad tv.
The second she enters opens the doors of Graceland she is not filled with a sense of peace, but tension as she hears the shouting and crashing noises from within. Once again, Paige is automatically thrust back into action mode. Her adrenaline spikes and she runs into the living room to see what is going on, worried there's an intruder.
There are no new faces in the room, but all of the residents of Graceland are so angry, screaming at each other and pushing that they are almost unrecognizable. The only pattern Paige can detect is that most of the anger seems directed at Mike, though he seems equally pissed at the others. Briggs is in the middle of it all, trying to keep the violence from elevating. Charlie is yelling at everyone from the sidelines to calm down. Bates just looks rather helpless and not sure of what to do. Both Jakes and Johnny seem to be on the same side for once, ready to rip Mike in half. Mike is just as angry, standing his ground and screaming and shove back, not seeming at all concerned that he's about to get his ass kicked.
Paige can't quite tell from all the shouting what the fight is about, but she knows it's crossed a line when she hears Mike's voice above the ruckus scream, "...You're just a child Johnny! An overgrown puppy! And it's fine when there's someone to hold your leash, but seeing as the only two responsible adults in the house are off in lala land, either fucking or shooting up heroin or god knows what..."
"Hey you crossed the line. Back down young man!" Briggs turns around to face Mike, completely letting go of Johnny who takes the opportunity to launch towards Mike, and his fists catches him in the jaw. Briggs immediately tries to stop the two, but the three of them end up all in a blur of screaming and punches. The other men all join in, and it's hard to tell who's fighting who, but things are getting out of hand.
"Hey! HEY!" Paige throws herself directly into the fray, not at all intimidated by the fact that the men in the fight all outweigh her by at least 100 lbs. She grabs Mike and pulls him back, as Briggs and Charlie hold Jakes back and Bates gets control of Johnny.
All of the men seem crazed with anger, and Mike is no exception. However, somewhere in the back of his mind Mike realizes it's Paige who is grabbing him and he finds just enough restraint not to flail out and hurt her, but he still holds his body stiff, straining to fly into action at the slightest provocation.
"What the hell is going on?" Paige demands.
Everyone starts yelling at the same time, making it impossible for Paige to hear over the screaming. What she does hear is Charlie yelling over all the men, "Paige, get him the hell out of here!"
Paige who still has a hold of Mike, pulls him back out the doors of Graceland shoving him towards the car. Once outside in the parking lot she lets him go, and he glares back towards the house, his hands balled into fists at his side.
"Get in!" She barks.
"I didn't-" Mike starts to argue, but Paige cuts him off.
"I don't want to hear it, Mike. Get in the damn car." Paige gets back into the drivers seat herself and slams the door, fuming as she waits for him to join her.
This is not how Paige wanted her evening to go. She knows that all hopes of rest and sweatpants are out the window now that she has to babysit Mike. She has to keep him away from the house long enough for everyone to calm down, and based off the fight she just saw, it will take all night.
She does not know how she got stuck with being the babysitter. Since Mike's come back to Graceland from DC, he has been so uptight and obnoxious that she seems to be the only one in the house that can stand to be around him.
When she gets him one on one he's not that bad. Paige knows all the nagging comes from a good place. Mike wants to do good, wants to prove himself, and he's a bit of a perfectionist. She can relate to those motivations, it's just sometimes he takes it too far. Still, Paige is pissed as hell she did not get to change clothes, and that she is still working off the clock.
"Where are we going?" Mike finally asks gruffly after five minutes of dead silence in the car.
"To get drunk." Paige says simply.
"Of course." Mike scoffs, and Paige bristles at the condemnation in his voice.
"Listen you judgmental prick. I can drive this car straight to the airport and send you back to DC with your balls in your carryon, or you can quit being a pompous shit, suck it up and stop judging everyone. Then maybe, you can actually do what you came out here to do." Paige's hands tighten around the steering wheel in frustration. She knows there's a good guy under all of that bravado but Jesus does Mike make it difficult to remember sometimes.
"Sorry." Mike says shortly, but Paige can feel him rolling his eyes as he says it.
"You want to be a rockstar again? Fine. But all that ego you've got going on now? You need to lose it. Because whatever you may have accomplished out here before, you didn't get there on your own. You can't just use us to get to DC and then come back here and treat us all like we're beneath you."
"I don't think you're beneath me. It's just the level of professionalism-" Mike starts to argue, but Paige cuts him off.
"What we do is different. You want to play by the book? Go back to pushing papers in DC. You want to be exceptional, shut the fuck up and listen. Tonight is not about fun. It's going to be work." Paige says, as she parks the car, unbuckles her seatbelt and exits the car not even waiting to see if Mike will follow her into the shady dive bar on the very edge of town where she's parked.
She feels all the eyes on her as she enters the bar, and it only adds to her frustration. In her short black dress and high heel red "fuck me" shoes, she is standing out in all the wrong ways among the tough crowd. Luckily she's so pissed off as she walks in, that no one dares approach her. Her body language alone tells the world she does not want to be fucked with.
She takes a seat at the edge of the bar, and doesn't even look over as Mike sits sheepishly beside her. He's on high alert taking in all his surroundings. With his clean cut looks and neatly ironed oxford blue shirt, he may stand out almost as much as Paige does. She orders two beers and several shots. When the bartender asks if she wants to open a tab, she informs her it will be on Mike's credit card and to leave the card open. Mike looks over frustrated at her for this, but begrudgingly hands over his card.
The bartender leaves them their drinks, and only then does Paige address Mike.
"Take this shot." Paige orders. Mike rolls his eyes, but knows he's in trouble, so he downs the shot. "Good, now take another."
"I'm fine." Mike says, giving her an annoyed look. "I'm not really in a partying mood tonight."
"This isn't partying. This is training. You aren't at your desk anymore. You need to build up your tolerance. You think you know everything, but what are you going to do when you need to drink a suspect under the table. You need to build up your tolerance and learn the tricks. Now take the damn shot." Paige growls in a frustrated voice.
"Ok, now take off your shirt." Paige holds out her hand expectantly.
"You're joking." Mike stares at Paige, but the glare that she gives him tells Mike she is definitely not kidding.
"Is this part of the training too?" He grumbles as he begins to resentfully unbutton his shirt. "Or is this some type of punishment."
"No, this is because I didn't get a chance to change when I got home, and I'm tired of every man in this bar staring at me like he's going to fuck me. So you're going to give me your shirt. Now."
Mike scoffs but finishes unbuttoning his blue oxford shirt, and begrudgingly hands it over to Paige, leaving him in just his undershirt with jeans. In the california dive bar, he fits right in. Paige puts on his shirt over her short tight black dress, leaving it open like a jacket, and rolls the sleeves up to her elbows. She pulls her long blonde hair up into a haphazard bun, securing it with a pen. She sighs a little in relief and looks down unhappily at the stilettos on her feet. "You're lucky we don't wear the same size, or you'd be giving me your shoes too."
"It wouldn't make a difference. Every single guy in this bar would still want to fuck you." Mike says bluntly. All the eyes on her piss him off, and Mike chugs his beer as he tries to ignore it. He's still angry and looking for a fight. If a single guy so much as touches her, he will beat that bastard into a pulp.
"Hey, none of that. Calm down. Drink this." Paige notices Mike scanning the room looking for a fight, and she is not breaking up another fight today. She slams the third shot in front of him.
"I'm still drinking my beer. Do you want to kill me?" Mike complains.
"You need to learn how to do this." Paige insists, slamming back a shot herself. "Drink."
"Paige…" Mike begins to protest.
"Don't be just a sissy. Just shut up and drink. I heard about what happened when you were under with those bangers the other night. You were acting too boyscout and they didn't want to deal with you. You need to get people's trust, and in order to do that you have to let them feel like you're guard is down even when it's not. Now prepare yourself, because every ten minutes we're going to do a shot until one of us is on the floor. Fair warning, it won't be me."
Mike is embarrassed Paige heard about him screwing up that meet. He doesn't think the way it was all pinned on him is fair though. He doesn't want to end up Charlie and start shooting up heroin in order to get street cred. Still, Paige doesn't seem to be judging him, just cutting through the bullshit and stating the facts. He knows she's trying to help, and even though she seems pissed at him. No matter how far he pushes her, somehow she's always on his side even if she needs to forcibly push him in the right direction.
Accepting this for what it is, Mike reaches out and takes the shot.