A/N - Okay: Big ups to thecatfromaliceinwonderland for pointing out the "Princess" and "Meghan" connection in that last chapter, which was posted on the day of the Royal Wedding. I honestly didn't plan it that way... I guess the name "Meghan" was in my head from all the coverage of the wedding this past week, but I had planned on "Princess" as the dog's name ever since I first started planning the story - one more excuse for Paige to look down on Emily. :)

Anyway... Thanks for reading! 3

"Wayne and I had a spitting contest at recess today."

"Oh, you did?" Emily, trying to get dinner together after a long day of errands and appointments, was tuning in and out of Anna's recap of her day.

"He told me that I spit pretty far for a girl, but I told him that girls can do anything that boys can do."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Tomorrow, we're going to race to the old tree and back, because he told me that boys are faster than girls."

Emily put down the box of rice that she had been holding as she tried to decipher the cooking instructions. "Honey, do you think you should be spending so much time with Wayne?"

"It's not so much time, Mommy! Recess is the shortest period of the day!"

"No, that's not what I mean." Emily stooped to one knee, getting down to Anna's eye level. She put one hand on her daughter's shoulder and smoothed the other through her hair. "Don't you think you should play Marica or Tara or Nicole?"

"Mommy, her name's Mariko."

"Yes, Mariko. Why don't you play with your girlfriends?"

"I do, Mommy. But Wayne's my friend, too. You said it doesn't matter if someone's a boy or a girl if you like him."

"That's true, but…"

"And nobody ever plays with Wayne. And you told me that I should be nice to people when people aren't nice to them."

"I know, Anna. I'm just saying…" Anna was giving her a look of pure innocence. She wasn't challenging or contradicting her mother; she was only trying to reconcile what Emily was saying with the things she had always taught her. Emily understood that she was confusing her daughter. She took in a deep breath and tried to reset. "All I'm saying, Honey, is that Wayne was very mean to you, remember? We all had to go to see Principal Dahler?"

"I know, Mommy. But you told me that we should forgive people, when they say that they're sorry!"

Emily laughed, giving Anna a hug. Anna wasn't sure what was so funny or why she was getting a hug.

Emily loved her daughter. She loved the fact that she had taken her words so seriously. And children had a better capacity to forgive and move on. Anna had a good point. There was no reason that she shouldn't befriend Wayne. She gave her a kiss on the forehead. "I'm proud of you, Honey."

Anna wasn't sure why. "I'm proud of you, too, Mommy."

Emily went back to work, trying to get dinner together. Not long after, Anna started up the conversation again.

"Wayne told me that Ms. Paige used to have longer hair."

"She did?" Emily, her focus back on dinner, was giving Anna just enough feedback to keep the conversation alive.

"She wanted it to look like Rihanna. But she thinks it looks like bad Miley Cyrus."

Emily stifled a laugh. She found it hard to believe that Paige was the kind of woman who obsessed over Rihanna or Miley Cyrus.

"I know how come Wayne and Mrs. Paige and Wayne moved to Rosewood, Mommy."

"You do?"

"Uh huh." Anna nodded. She curled her forehead. "Mommy, what's a 'dyke?'"

Emily gasped, almost dropping the spoon that she was holding, but she calmed herself, mot wanting to alarm her daughter. "Honey, where did you hear that word?" she stammered.

It had been one of Emily's fears that her daughter would be bullied because of her mother's sexuality, but she never expected that it would start that young.

"Wayne told me that his daddy came home one night, and he was drunk, and he told his mommy that no son of his was going to be raised by a – and then he said the f-word, and then he said, 'dyke.'" Anna recounted the story in emotionless detail, as if she were on television, reading the nightly news.

Emily bit her lip. She realized that she had no idea what Paige had had to deal with; much less Wayne. She could understand why Paige would be so guarded. No child should have to be exposed to any of that - a drunken father, fights between his parents, abusive, homophobic language, and bringing the child into it, as if to make the child choose a side.

Emily was glad that Wayne had someone to befriend him at school, and glad that Anna had been the one to fill that role. Still, she wasn't sure that this story was something that Paige would want Wayne's friends to know about.

"Sweetie, I don't think that you should be talking about things like that with Wayne."

"I'm sorry, Mommy!" Anna was trying not to cry. She couldn't seem to get anything right, when it came to Paige and Wayne.

"I'm not upset, Anna."

"I told him that he should never say the F-word!"

"That's not what I'm talking about… it's just… Well, some things are family business, and I'm not sure that this is the kind of thing that Ms. Paige would be okay with having other people know about."

"I'm sorry! I didn't ask him to tell me. He just told me! I don't know why he told me, Mommy!" Anna was afraid that Emily was going to tell her that she couldn't play with Wayne anymore.

"Anna, you didn't do anything wrong."

Anna put her head down, still feeling guilty, still trying to discern what sin she had committed. Emily gave her a reassuring hug.

"I didn't tell him about our family, Mommy," she offered earnestly, in case that was what her mother was worried about.

"I know, Sweetheart! I'm not mad at you. You didn't do anything wrong, okay?" Emily hugged her daughter again. Anna was probably right: Wayne really did need a friend. Much more than Anna realized. More than even Emily had realized.

"So, can I still be friends with Wayne?"

"Yeah. Yes, you can, Anna. Of course, you can. From the sound of it, he could really use a good friend."

Paige, Emily thought, could probably use a good friend, too. But Emily didn't know how to make that transition. She was pretty sure that, if she approached Paige on the basis of this new information, Paige would stiffen up, go into self-defense mode, and reject any attempts to help.

Emily rubbed Anna's back as she released her from the hug. "What do you say we get a pizza tonight?" There was no point in trying to make dinner anymore. Emily had too much on her mind.

"Okay, Mommy!" Anna didn't understand the sudden change of menu, but she had no complaints about it.

Emily put away the rice and chicken that she had started preparing and got onto her laptop, to order dinner. "Shall we get the cinnamon sticks?" she asked, as if there were any doubt how Anna would reply.

Once dinner was ordered, Emily let Anna help her get the table ready before sending her off to play by herself until the pizza arrived. As soon as she was alone, she got back onto her laptop, to see what kind of resources were available in the Rosewood area to help someone in Paige's position. That didn't address her real question, though. She still didn't know how she would bring the subject up with Paige. But she knew whom to ask.

After dinner and a story or two to get Anna off to dreamland, Emily picked up her phone and placed a call to Texas.

"How's my favorite daughter?" Wayne asked, as he always did when he picked up a phone call from Emily. Emily was very young when she figured out that she was his only daughter. When she confronted him about it, shortly after her sixth birthday, he deflected by saying that all of the billions of women in the world were someone's daughter, and, out of all those daughters, she was his favorite.

("What about Mommy?" Emily asked.

"You're Mommy's favorite, too!" Wayne said confidently.

"But Mommy's Grandma and Grandpa's daughter! Isn't she your favorite daughter?"

Pam Fields smirked at Wayne, interested to see how he would tap-dance his way out of that question.

"You're both my favorite," he assured Emily, gathering his two favorite daughters into his arms and kissing them on their foreheads.

Wayne Fields was no fool.)

"How's my favorite dad?" Emily rushed the words out, finishing her greeting at the same time that Wayne finished his.

"And how's my granddaughter doing?"

"She's great," Emily said, her smile almost audible. "She misses her Grandpa, though. She can't wait to get back to Texas to see you this summer. She really misses you. We both do!"

"Uh oh!" Wayne laughed from deep within his belly at that last comment. "I must really be in trouble, now. What's up, Emmy? You need someone to pay for a wedding?"

Emily scoffed playfully. "Ha! You wish!"

"Yes, I do wish," Wayne asserted. "Oka, so, what is it? Car repair bill? My granddaughter needs braces?"

"Dad…" Emily protested, drawing out the word, "I don't just call you when I need something!"

"No, that's true," Wayne conceded. "You also call me on my birthday and Father's day!"

"Ugh! Dad! Stop!" Emily started laughing, too. She did talk to her parents regularly, but she usually called their landline, so that she could talk to both of them. Wayne was right to be suspicious of the fact that she had called his cell phone. "But, um… actually, I do need something," she said lightly. "I need some advice."

"Ah, advice!" Wayne mused, leaning back in his chair. "A father's favorite thing to give – and the cheapest!" Turning a bit more serious, he asked, "What's going on, Emmy?"

Emily explained the entire story about Paige, from the principal's office through the therapist's office, ending with the news that Anna had brought home with her that afternoon.

"Oh, yeah. It sounds as if she really could use a little support."

"Right… But, how do I do that without…"

"Well, Emmy..." Wayne tapped his fingers against the buttons on the TV's remote control, tracing out patterns but not actually pushing any of them. "The best thing you can do is become a friend to her. You know, no one wants a 'concerned acquaintance' to come in and try to 'fix' their lives." Emily knew her father. She knew that he was making the air quotes even though he was on a phone call and not facetiming. "Nobody wants to be someone's well-meaning charity case," he continued. "If you really want to support her, you're going to have to get to know her – and let her get to know you. You have to be as willing to accept help from her as you want her to be to accept it from you, you know."

"But, do I tell her what Anna told me? I mean, how do I explain my sudden interest in being her friend?"

"I wouldn't." Wayne replied. "She might know that you know; her son might have talked to her about the conversation, as Anna did with you. You know, we Waynes tend to be very honest and intelligent people." Emily groaned audibly, since her father couldn't see her pained expression. "But, whether or not she knows, you don't have to say it out loud. Not at the beginning, certainly. Just use Anna as an excuse – invite Wayne over for a playdate, maybe invite Paige in, you guys all go over to the park together – you know, start small and build it up. And don't go into it with the attitude that you're there to help her. Just be there as a friend to her. When the time's right, she'll open up. Or, if she doesn't, you'll know in your gut when it's appropriate to bring it up. Make sense?"

Emily had been indicating her agreement with little intonations as her father talked. The course of action that he was suggesting seemed reasonable, and it seemed like something she could do. "Thanks, Dad," she said sincerely. "You really helped me out."

Wayne chuckled into the phone. "That's what dads do!"

"Yeah, whatever..." As much as she appreciated his advice, Emily needed to take his ego down a notch. "Every once in a while, you come up with a winner."

Wayne laughed along with Emily. "Do you want me to get your mother on the phone?"

"No, that's okay," Emily said pleasantly. "Just tell her that I'll call you guys later in the week."

"Okay. Looking forward to it. Take care."

"Take care, Dad. I love you."

Emily knew that calling her father had been the right thing to do. She felt better about her prospects of being able to be there for Paige and Wayne. And she was excited at the thought that she and Paige could wind up being friends.