Coffee With Cream

Chapter 3

Mike is in his room, changing out of his FBI uniform, when suddenly the door swings open with no warning. Mike freezes, literally caught with his pants around his ankles. Paige bounces into the room, oblivious to any concept of personal boundaries.

"Hey Levi! A couple of us are heading down to- Oh my gosh, really?" The sentence dissolves into giggles.

"It's Mike, and don't they teach you to knock at the DEA?" Mike groans.

He looks around for a shirt, or pants, or anything to fix his current state of undress. Sure, they were in California where people daily went out in public with far less clothing on, but here in his bedroom, with Paige, he felt exposed.

"You seriously own American Flag boxer shorts? You are sooo white bread." Paige throws herself on his bed. She's laughing her ass off.

"My mom bought them for me." Mike defends.

This confession brings a fresh new round of laughter. Mike stands there watching her gasp for breath on his bed, wondering where she got the nerve to walk into his room unannounced and make fun of his underwear. He wonders if she'd still be laughing if he were to cross the room, pin her down on his bed, and kiss her senseless.

"That makes it worse!" Paige gasps, wiping away tears.

"Can I help you with something?"

Mike turns around to root through the closet for pants. He wants to try and steer the focus away from his boxers, or more specifically, the growing tent there.

"Oh no. You don't get to talk all normal when you're wearing those."

Still lying on her stomach, Paige reaches out and snaps the band of the back of his boxers.

"Holy shit!" Mike squeals in surprise.

He spins around and grabs his shorts as if he's afraid Paige is going to steal them. Which, he then realizes, is stupid.

She is laughing again, knees pulled up to her chest, hair splayed across his bed.

"You're … too ... much." She wheezes in between giggles. "Oh it hurts. It hurts." She holds onto her spasming rib cage, laughing uncontrollably.

"Would you prefer I take them off?" Mike asks shortly, and then realizes what he just said.

He did not mean for it to come out that way.

Paige just laughs harder at this, and it is not good for Mike's ego. He finally finds a pair of jeans, and yanks them on over his boxer shorts.

"You came in here for something?" Mike asks, feeling more confident now that he has pants on.

Paige still is unable to speak, her whole body shakes with each spasm of silent laughter. Mikes sighs, and sits down next to her on the bed while she continues to quiver.

"Anytime now. I'll wait." He says, watching her try to calm herself and then dissolving into helpless laughter again. He's worried she may pass out from lack of air.

Finally, wiping tears from her eyes, she manages to choke out the words, "We're going to the Drop. Do you want to come?"

"Sure."

After this, Mike could use a drink. Note to self, he needs to start buying his own underwear.

"Good."

Paige seems to have regained control of herself now, and reaches out her hand for help off his bed. He takes her hand, and pulls her to her feet. She is suddenly standing dangerously close to him, and he realizes he still hasn't put on a shirt. Her eyes are wet and twinkling, and her cheeks are flushed from laughter. His gaze travels down to her lips, and he subconsciously wets his own.

"Let's go Captain America."

She swats his ass, and then dashes out of the room before he can retaliate. Her laughter rings the whole way down the hall.


Johnny, Jakes, Mike and Paige are sitting at a table in the bar. Mike is surprised at how packed the joint is for being two in the afternoon on a Tuesday. Apparently day drinking is a more common hobby than he thought.

"Lauren man. She went crazy. She ran right out in front of that truck." He and Johnny are recounting the story of their bust this morning with the rest of the table.

"Never seen Briggs so pissed off in my life. Ever. I mean not even when you screw up." Johnny adds.

Mike makes a face. He has never been considered the screwup before. He's always been a top-of-the-class kind of guy. He doesn't know how to handle the recent endless commentary on his inadequacy, especially when Paige is a witness to it.

"Where is he by the way?" Johnny asks of Briggs.

Mike kicks himself for not thinking of asking the question himself earlier. He needs to find out more about Briggs. He has an assignment. Plus, it's his only way of getting back to DC, though admittedly Graceland is starting to grow on him. He steals a glance at Paige. The company's good.

"You know Briggs man. He's meditating this into the universe. He'll be back when he achieves innerpeace. Blah blah Briggs." Jakes says dismissively.

Jakes takes his drinking seriously, and will not have it interrupted by speculations about missing roommates.

"Whatever, look. Time to explain to Mikey here, the subtleties of undercover dating. I'm serious." Johnny begins to lecture.

Mike wonders if this lecture will include how to date a fellow undercover agent. He doubts it, the rule on that is probably "don't".

"Cannot break your cover." Johnny continues.

Mike casts a quick glance over to Paige who is just smiling away as usual. Teasing Mike seems to be her favorite pastime recently, and it doesn't seem to matter much to her who is doing the teasing.

"I get it." Mike says quickly.

What he does not say is that this was one rule that did not apply towards him. The only girl he was interested in dating was sitting right beside him, sipping her drink and laughing at him with her eyes.

"Do you?" Johnny challenges. This is apparently a very important point.

"Yeah."

"You can never go up to a woman and say hi I'm special agent Mike Warren. I work undercover for the FBI." Jakes leans across the table, joining in the lecture.

"Which is too bad, because that's one hell of a pick up line." Paige leans back in her seat and licks her lips.

Mike grins at this, his confidence fueled. Someone must have liked the view earlier today, because the line seems to be working on her.

"Who are you tonight?" Mike asks. He leans in flirtatiously, trying to keep his voice casual in front of the other guys.

"Well that depends on who's here." She matches the playful gleam in his eye, and leans in as well.

The tension lays thick between them as their eyes remain locked. The words, "Who would you be with me?" are on the tip of his tongue, but before they can leave his mouth, Johnny interrupts.

"Your boy Phil is over there." Johnny says, oblivious to any subtext in Mike and Paige's conversation.

"Slowly, slowly, slowly." Johnny instructs as Paige turns, acts surprised to see Phil, and waves.

"Phil thinks I'm a pharmaceutical rep. Ask me why I chose that for him." Paige turns back to Mike.

He's listening closely to her voice for any hint that she may be in love with this Phil. It's a good thing he doesn't have his gun, or both Johnny and Phil might be dead by now.

"Why'd you choose that for Phil?" Mike asks quickly, worried for what her answer might be.

"Look at him. Does he look like a cardiologist to you?" Paige smirks, and Mike laughs, feeling relieved. Phil did not seem like very strong competition.

"Ok, you pick an alias they would know nothing about..." Paige advises.

"So, they don't ask too many questions, and they don't find out what they shouldn't. Right, right." Mike catches on quickly.

He's anxious to end the conversation, now that the spell is broken. He does not want to hear about what other roles Paige has played or, more to the point, who she's played them for.

"What about you?" Mike turns to Johnny.

"Me? I'm a pilot." Johnny shrugs.

"Just always a pilot." Mike is unimpressed with the originality of it.

"Always. Unless I meet a flight attendant. Like that one time. Then I'm a photographer." Johnny grins, turning to Paige his voice drops to a theatrical swaggering tone. "Oh my, you're stunning."

"Me?" Paige plays along.

"I'm serious. I mean, I gotta get you in front of my lense."

"Oh my god." Paige overacts, fanning herself.

"It works every time."

"Get out of here." Mike says in disbelief.

"Every time. Like clockwork son." Johnny is so confident in this that Mike considers buying a camera.

"I play bass in a band you've never heard of we travel a lot we've never recorded an album and we never will." Jakes says matter of factly. "Chicks dig artists…"

"Even starving artists?" Mike prompts. He just can't believe that. What woman wouldn't want a successful guy who could provide her with security?

"When they look like me they do. I'm like a chocolate Jesus. Watch and learn my young friend." Jakes says, getting up to saunter across the bar to an attractive young asian woman at the jukebox.

"That dude plays the same three chords every time. Over and over and over…" Johnny complains.

"Well, it seems to be working for him." Mike says, watching as the asian woman smiles and places a hand on his arm.

"He's an amature. I'll show you how it's done." Paige announces, standing up from her seat.

"That's not fair. You have breasts." Johnny complains.

"Yeah. Totally different game." Mike agrees.

"Hey, use what you got." Paige shrugs, "Alright kids. Wish me luck. I'm going to go talk to Phil. How do I look?"

She tosses her hair dramatically over her shoulder, and strikes a pose.

"Good. Go. You're scaring all the hot chicks off anyways." Johnny grumbles.

"Beautiful." Mike answers honestly. Paige flashes Mike a sincere smile, and then turns to go talk to Phil.