"Charlie! Want to dance with me?" Paige smiles even brighter, ignoring the tall drunk guy who has just approached her from behind to attempt grind against her in a sorry attempt for a dance without extending the courtesy of asking permission. Paige swats him away like a fly and reaches for Charlie.

"Nope. I don't want to dance. I want that lemon french toast thing Mikey makes." Charlie says, taking Paige's hand and pulling her further away from the disappointed man behind her. "Which means I need you to take that sorry boy at the bar home and do whatever it is you do to him that makes him cheery enough to make it from scratch. Not frittatas, no pancakes, I want french toast with lemon curd. I'll even get up early and go get raspberries for it from the farmers market."

"Those days are over Charlie." Paige says not unkindly, looking over to where Mike was nervously trying to look like he was not watching the interaction between the two women.

"You two need to talk. Really talk." Charlie insists seriously, "Before it's too late. With Dale gone, who knows how long they're gonna keep Graceland running."

"We don't know what's going to happen with the house and Mike and I are fine." Paige rolls her eyes at Charlie, beginning to sway her hips again. "We can be in the same room again. What more do you want?"

"I either want you two to work through your shit and get back together, or to let each other go and move on."

"Well then all settled. We've both moved on." Paige shrugs.

"Yeah, I can tell by the way he's crying into his beer over there and you're out here dancing like you want revenge." Charlie says sarcastically. "Oh, here comes our boy now."

"Hey, I think I'm just going to head back early. Get some sleep so I can be fresh for tomorrow's search party." Mike says, looking at his feet and hoping that Paige realizes Mike didn't ask Charlie to interfere here.

"Like a sign from God!" Charlie exclaims as the fast club music switches to a slower romantic beat and people start coupling off on the dance floor. She grabs Mike and Paige and pulls them closer together. Charlie takes Paige's empty beer from her hand to make sure she can have her hands free to put on Mike. "Dance! Talk! I'm gonna go grab the next round."

Mike and Paige still hesitate, looking at each other awkwardly until Charlie fixes them with a glare. Paige grabs Mike's half empty beer bottle to finish it off before Charlie can confiscate that too, figuring she's going to need all the liquid courage she can get. She nearly spits it out in surprise when she's met with the taste of water rather than booze. She looks up at Mike curiously and Charlie grabs the bottle and shoves Paige forward. Mike catches Paige to stop her from stumbling, his hands resting on her waist. Charlie smiles, pleased with her work, and heads back to the bar to give them a moment.

Once she's out of earshot, Paige looks up to where Mike is stubbornly staring over her shoulder.

"Water?" She asks with an eyebrow raised.

"It's not a big deal. I just don't want to take any risks with…" Mike says evenly, glad she didn't out his complete sobriety to Charlie.

"I get it." Paige says simply. She hadn't meant to embarrass him with it. Addiction was no joke, and Mike staying sober for a few months while he dealt with his demons probably wasn't a bad idea. "Good for you."

"Let's just dance." Mike says, trying to shut down whatever she might say about it.

He can't shake the embarrassment of her seeing him in the throws of addiction. He remembers her brushing his sweaty hair back as he heaved into a trash can and called her a battery of disgusting names he didn't mean. No matter how much better he gets, she's always going to have that memory. She's never going to see him as she did the night she dropped her towel and her defenses for him.

"Fine, we can dance, but none of these eighth grade formal, leave-room-for-Jesus, moves you're pulling." Paige says, stepping into the carefully held space between them he's formed. She brings her hands up from his arms to around his neck and tucks in closer to him until her whole body is pressed up to his. She rests her head on his shoulder and their bodies sway in time to the music.

"I didn't know you could dance." She murmurs into his chest, after a minute of him leading her through the steps with more experience than she expected.

Another minute of just the two of them holding each other, swaying in time to the music, passes easily. Her hair tickles Mike's cheek, but he doesn't dare move it away for fear of breaking the moment.

"This is nice." Mike observes, and wonders if saying it aloud crosses some invisible boundary.

"Yeah." Paige agrees, pulling him a little closer, "How have we never done this before?"

"I wanted to." Mike admits. When his admission is not met with objection, he volunteers a bit more information, "When I was under with Bello, there was this club he used to frequent that struck me as a place I thought you'd like. I always meant to show it to you."

"You wanted to take me dancing?" Paige looks up at him with an amused grin. She often forgot Mike, underneath all the FBI protocol and seriousness, was a bit of an old soul romantic.

"I wasn't sure if that was ok with our... arrangement." Mike still isn't sure what to call what they had together. They'd never defined it.

"Yeah... I can see why you didn't." Paige says somberly.

"If I had asked you... Would you have gone with me?" Mike asks, trying to keep his tone casual, though he knows he's steering them into the dangerous territory of what-if's.

"Maybe." Paige answers vaguely, looking up at him with a look he can't decipher, "I guess we'll never know."

"What you said earlier." Mike brings the subject back up, ready to address it, "About me not looking at you..."

"Can we forget I said anything? I'm sure I'm just being-" Paige gives an embarrassed laugh.

"No, you're right." Mike says, not letting her brush it off, "I don't look at you like that anymore because... it hurts too much."

"I'm sorry." Paige apologizes immediately.

She's never fully had the words to apologize for her actions. She still didn't, and Mike had been so gracious about everything, that she'd started to believe maybe they could actually get passed it without her forcing it. His admission now confirms what she knew, that she may not have killed him, but she had certainly killed any chance for them to be together. He would ever look at her that way again.

She buries her head into his chest hoping she can maybe be more articulate without having to look at him, and she begins to grovel, "I'm so so sorry. I know no amount of apologizing for what I did will-"

"It's not that, Paige. It hurts to look at you because," Mike takes a deep breath, "It hurts to see what I used to have and can't have again, and know it's all my fault."

Paige looks up at him, speechless, all the words of her unsaid apology still choking her.

"I don't feel like I have the right to look at you anymore." He leans in, and presses his cheek against hers.

His ear is right there. Right next to her lips. She should fill it with assurances that she is just as much to blame for their downfall, and a thousand other things she wishes she could change about the past. Instead she just takes a deep breath and whispers, "So, don't look. Let's just close our eyes and dance."

"Ok." Mike agrees, his fingers tightening around the small of her back.

Another slow dance song begins to play and Mike wonders if Charlie paid off the DJ. The two don't talk the entire dance, they just sway back and forth in the familiar comfort of each other's arms. After that the music inevitably picks up again and Paige knows she needs to open her eyes again. They can't stay like this forever, pressed against each other with their eyes closed to all their problems. She pulls away with a shy smile and turns to walk away, but Mike catches her hand and spins her into him.

"Wait, you actually know how to dance?" Paige asks, as Mike begins to lead her with impressive confidence in time with the new faster song.

"You know I went to prep school right? Dancing was a required class." Mike gives her a familiar smirk, not missing a beat.

"I didn't think you'd know how to mambo!" Paige laughs.

"Oh I was at the top of all of my classes." Mike assures her dipping her back. "I can even weave a handbasket."

"No, you cannot." Paige squeals in delight at this image.

"I can. It's sitting on my mom's fireplace." Mike says proudly as he leads her around the dance floor.

"Is that where you learned to make french toast?" Paige asks.

"No, that was born from the internet and the need to impress overnight guests." Mike admits, in a tone that almost makes Paige think he's flirting he asks, "Did it work?"

"Well it impressed someone…" Paige smiles, (he was definitely flirting) "Charlie was asking."

"I might be able to arrange that." Mike spins Paige in against him tightly. "I probably I owe her for something."

"She's going to be really smug after this." Paige says, looking over to where Charlie is looking at the two of them with barely contained glee.

"Well, a win's a win." Mike quotes Paige back to herself, "So not to change topics, but can I talk to you about something investigation related?"

"Please." Paige says. This dancing and flirting is new territory she's completely unfamiliar with and wasn't expecting tonight. She thought it would takes months of grovelling and angst, probably a few more times of her jealously watching Mike date someone again, and definitely several more screaming fights before they got to this point. Now that she's here she feels a little dizzy. The change of pace to something familiar like discussing cases is welcome. More than anything with Mike, she's missed them confiding in each other.

"I don't trust Briggs." Mike murmurs in her ear as he pulls her close under the disguise of dancing. "We have to find Dale before he does. I have a lead on where he might be. Tomorrow can you go on a ride along with me?"

"I'd love to." Paige says honestly.

"Ok. Um, great." Mike says, relieved and clearly thinking that would require more effort. "So, we should probably head out then. I'll have to get up early if we're going to beat Briggs out. Plus, I owe Charlie that french toast."

"Maybe head out after one more song?" Paige asks, as the music shifts again.

"Ok." Mike says unable to deny her anything as he shifts his hand lower on her back. "Just one more dance."

They were clearly unable to let go of each other just yet.