"You don't have to go to this thing tonight," Emily said for about the millionth time. She knew that it would be awkward for Paige to go to the swim team's awards banquet after the Cara incident, and that it would be hard to watch others pick up the trophies that she, by rights, would have been taking home were it not for the punishment that the coaches doled out.

"Emily, there's no way that I'm going to miss tonight. It's not about me, it's about the team. I mean, even if I didn't want to go, I couldn't really stay home after telling the team over and over that to think team first, team second, and team last. Besides, she added with a kiss to her fiancée, "I want to go."

"It's just not fair," Emily said, applying powder to her face. "You shouldn't be penalized because of what Cara did. You should be up there on that podium tonight."

"Emily, it's fine! Besides, we both know that it's going to be all about you tonight! Even before the Cara thing, I was planning to go and be the supportive girlfriend. The only thing different now is that I'll be going as the supportive fiancée!"

Emily rolled her eyes and repeated to herself, "It's not fair."

Paige and Emily had become the twin pillars of the team over the course of their four years at Stanford. After their success in the freshman and sophomore campaigns, they had given a powerful boost to Stanford's recruiting, and their team senior year was one of the strongest in the program's history. They had done it all together. They were co-captains, and Paige led-off the relays that Emily anchored. As much as Paige deferred to Emily as the logical choice for swimmer of the year, the honor, by rights, could have gone to either of them. The fallout from the Cara incident, Emily thought, just made it an easier decision for the coaching staff.

Even in their appearance, they complemented each other, Emily in a dramatic, long, white ball gown; Paige in an equally stunning black suit with pants. Emily's long dark hair dramatically draping her shoulders; Paige's auburn hair with lighter highlights pulled tastefully back into a bun. Emily gave her a long look, from head to heels. It would be a shame, she thought, not to show her off tonight.

As Emily put on a final coat of lipstick, she turned to Paige. "Paige, when you see Cara tonight…"

Paige sighed deeply. Really? "I know, Em," she broke in, somewhat annoyed. "I'm not going to get into a fight with her or anything."

"Paige." Now Emily was annoyed. She put her hands on Paige's shoulders. "I know that you won't. I was going to say – don't let her ruin your evening – our evening. Just let it go."

Paige nodded her head. "I have. I've let it go."

"And, if she comes over to apologize?"

Paige thought it over for a moment. "Emily, please try to intercept her."

"But if I can't?"

Paige grabbed Emily's hands. "I'm okay, Em. I'll be okay." They heard the honking of a horn outside and went out to catch their ride with Vicki and Bob.

Vicki took a quick look around the banquet hall once they arrived. Spotting what she was looking for, she excused herself and Bob. Paige followed them with her eyes all the way over to Cara and her friends. Vicki said something that made Cara scan the room. Paige looked away before Cara's eyes spotted her. Cara hung her head slightly and nodded sadly to Vicki.

It was harder than Paige expected, at the banquet, watching, when the events in which she excelled were announced, as lesser swimmers went up to claim their trophies. Overall, though, she really was enjoying herself, and she was thrilled every time that Emily's name was called to receive the trophies for her events.

When the relay team was recognized, Coach Meehan read Paige's name along with those of three other swimmers. Emily grabbed Paige's hand to pull her onto the podium with her, but Paige sat and shook her head, not sure that she should go. She looked up and saw Coach pointing to her and gesturing her forward, so she smiled and went up. It felt good not to go home empty handed, but, more than that, it felt as if she were still part of the team.

When the final award of the night came around, Emily nervously grabbed Paige's hand with both of hers, her fingers digging in. Paige gave her an "Are you kidding me?" look. "Emily, there's no way you don't win this!" she leaned in and said.

On the podium, Coach Meehan said, "Well, rather than keep you all in suspense," and everybody laughed, knowing who the winner was, "let's just get them up here so that they can hear all the nice things that I have to say about them." Paige didn't have time to question why he was speaking in plural before he continued, "Emily Fields and Paige McCullers, get up here!" Emily turned to her, screaming in total shock. They hugged as their teammates applauded long and hard, finally collecting themselves and running up to the podium hand in hand.

"Now, ordinarily, this award goes to one person, but, let's face it: The two of you are pretty much one person, aren't you? In fact, I wanted to have it engraved to 'Paily,'" he said, turning the trophy toward the inscription, "but, no, the rest of the coaches told me that I had to put 'Emily Fields' and 'Paige McCullers' on there. You guys have had a tremendous impact on this program. How many of you out there came to Stanford for the opportunity to swim with these two?" Several hands went up across the room. "Even though you're leaving this year, you're leaving a legacy, and what you've built is a foundation that we can build on, for years to come.

"Now, we wanted to give you something besides just this trophy to remember us by. We all know what this is," he said, as a picture of Paige's bucket-list map was projected on the screen behind them. Paige turned a bright red. She had no idea that anyone besides Emily and her knew about the map, but someone had managed to get a picture of it. The map was well-worn from having been folded and unfolded through the years, and a respectable number of states had been exed out. "You guys have been keeping track of all the places where you swam together over the years." Paige let out a sigh of relief. So, people knew, but they didn't know. "Well, the next step is to take the Paily tour international," Coach Meehan said, as he handed them a framed map of the world with pushpins to stick in the countries that they visited. There were already pins in the US and in Mexico, where the Stanford team had traveled on a good-will trip. (On Paige's map of the US, the X that they had earned was at the bottom of the page, with an arrow pointing south of California.) Emily and Paige shared a knowing look. They were ready to start filling this new map with pins.

When Coach Meehan finished, he turned the microphone over to Paige and Emily. Paige excelled at giving locker-room speeches, but she couldn't handle being the center of attention like this. Her eyes went everywhere except towards the crowd in front of them. When Emily started speaking, Paige was grateful to have someone to focus on. Her eyes locked on Emily. There was a huge smile on her face. They kept the grip on each other's hands throughout Emily's speech. "Paige and I are truly honored to have been able to compete alongside this great group of swimmers for the last four years. We're excited to think of the potential that's still out there for those of you who will be returning in the coming years. We've been proud to be your co-captains, and you never once let us down. Wherever we go, what we all have built here is going to go with us. You all have a special place in our hearts. And we're always going to be rooting for the Cardinal!"

Paige ducked her head and gave a shy "Thank you" into the microphone as she brandished the trophy for everyone to see and led Emily back to their table. Emily gave her a celebratory kiss, but there was something more in Emily's eyes. The moment, the euphoria, the high of being surrounded by their teammates, the way Paige looked with her hair up in that suit and those heels – not to mention, Emily felt pretty sexy in the gown that she was wearing - it was all getting to her. They had been the gracious winners. Now, they were counting the minutes till they could get out of there.

Over the years that they had been together, Paige and Emily had subconsciously developed an elaborate system of signals for unspoken communication when they were in a crowd. They precise placement of Paige's fingers on Emily's shoulder told Emily that Paige was just as eager to move the party back to their apartment. Of course, the way that Paige's eyes kept drifting down to Emily's cleavage was a much less subtle signal. Emily lightly squeezed her hand up Paige's thigh, telling her to hang in there a little bit longer, subtly shifting in her seat to give Paige a preview of what she was hanging in there for. Paige responded by impatiently tapping out a rhythm on Emily's shoulder with her fingers. Emily stroked her hand higher on the outside of Paige's thigh and gave another gentle squeeze. Paige's tapping turned into circles that she began rubbing on the exposed skin underneath Emily's hair, where her gown plunged in the back. Emily smiled over at Paige and puckered ever so slightly, to blow her a subtle kiss. She grabbed Paige's other hand, beneath the table and brought it up for a kiss before she interlocked their fingers and put their hands into her lap, close enough for Paige to feel her heat. Paige was done. She squeezed Emily's hand and leaned her face into Emily's, pleading. Emily put her forearm to her head. She had suddenly developed a headache. She excused herself from the table and went to give good-byes and an apology to the coaches. Coach Meehan said that he understood, and that he would arrange to have their trophies and the map taken back to his office so that they could pick them up whenever.

Vicki offered to give them a ride back to their apartment, but Paige declined, saying that she didn't want Vicki and Bob to have to leave the banquet early. There were plenty of cabs outside the hotel where the banquet was being hosted, and, frankly, Paige preferred to have some anonymous cabbie be the one to see what was about to take place in the back seat of the car that took them home.

The cab driver, totally distracted by Paige and Emily's antics, had never engaged the meter. When they got to the house, Paige impatiently asked him, "How much?" and he said not to worry; the show was worth the fare. She reached into her purse and tossed some bills his way as a tip before she sprinted for the front door.

Once on the other side of the door, Paige only took her hands off Emily long enough to get out of her shoes and to let her hair down. She was never so happy for a dress that was easy to get Emily out of than she was at that moment. With a quick unzipping, it fell to the floor, and Paige short-circuited at the sight of her fiancée's caramel skin in a lacy white strapless bra and thong. "So help me God, I'll never get tired of that vision," she said, reconnecting her lips with Emily's.

"Yeah?" Emily said between kisses, urgently pushing Paige's jacket off of her shoulders, "Even when I'm old, fat, and wrinkled?"

"I don't care," Paige said honestly, "as long as you're mine." Her hands couldn't stay still; groping Emily's ass and rubbing up and down from her thighs to her shoulders. That bra needed to come off, and once she removed it, her kisses moved lower – to Emily's jaw, to her neck, to her shoulders, and to her chest, before she finally claimed her prize, kissing, sucking, and biting Emily's glorious breasts. Emily had both hands in Paige's hair, but she quickly redeployed them to work at getting Paige's shirt off. Paige stood up. She liked this. She liked the way that Emily looked her dead in the eye with that serious, lustful expression, biting the corner of her lower lip as she impatiently undid each and every button. All the while, Emily would grind her creamy thigh in between Paige's thighs. Paige threw her head back, moaning loudly, and Emily took advantage of her exposed neck, descending on it with kisses and bites, leaving her mark on the pale canvas.

Paige put both hands on Emily's ass, pulling her in closer, making her grind more deeply into her. Emily let her enjoy a few strokes before she dropped to her knees and undid the button and zipper on Paige's slacks, sending them falling to the floor. She looked up at Paige with a lascivious smile, before diverting all of her attention and her facial muscles to Paige's crotch. She lightly, teasingly, ghosted her tongue over Paige, tasting her through her lacy boyshorts with a low, rumbling, "Mmmmm, Baby!" Paige's hands were tightly balled fists; her eyes were shut tight and her head was shifting from facing left to facing right as she tried to avoid disintegrating into a million pieces all around Emily. She wanted to pick her up and carry her to bed, but Emily was having none of that. For whatever reason, Emily had decided that it was all about Paige, at least for now. Now, it was Emily grabbing Paige's ass and pulling her in deeper.

Emily mercifully yanked down Pagie's boyshorts, soaked from both sides, at this point, and massaged Paige's ass and the back of her thighs. She was kissing and licking the front of Paige's thighs, looking up at her in jubilation and lust. Paige grabbed Emily's head in desperation, guiding it to her folds. Emily licked and sucked at Paige's clit, moving her fingers in and thrusting forcefully. Paige was finding it hard to stand. Her toes were curled tight beneath her; her hands fisted tight in Emily's hair; her teeth biting hard on her lower lip.

Emily reached up to Paige's breasts, pushing her bra out of the way. Paige grabbed it and pulled it over her head, her hand grabbing Emily's arm. Emily got the signal: Paige wanted it hard, fast. Emily stood up and began kissing Paige deeply, backing her over to the couch. It would be a pain to clean in the morning, but it was closer than the bed. She pushed Paige down onto it and jumped on top of her and gave her what she needed, squeezing their interlocked fingers with one hand, curling her fingers inside Paige and stroking deep and fast with the other. She gave Paige's clit gentle strokes with her thumb, occasionally halting her kisses to Paige's abs to lick and suck there. Emily persisted as Paige's hips rose above the couch and she pounded her fists into the cushion, whimpering, moaning, and calling out Emily's name.

Once Paige's breathing restored to normal, she rolled over into the couch, pinning Emily under her. What happened next was something that Emily was not prepared for. Paige rolled over onto her back and pulled Emily's arms around her shoulders. Then, she hoisted herself up from the couch, carrying a slightly panic-stricken Emily piggyback into the bedroom where she flopped backwards onto the bed in something resembling a WWE Divas maneuver. Emily was laughing heartily until Paige turned over and faced her, and Emily saw the serious look in her eyes. She reached up and pulled Paige down by her hair into a kiss, breathing, "Take me, Baby" into her ear.

Paige kissed Emily slowly and longingly. She was going to take her time and enjoy this evening. She lovingly, unhurriedly smoothed her hands over each of Emily's curves, whispering in her ear how sexy Emily looked in that white dress; how all that she could think about all through the banquet was ripping the dress off of her; how fortunate she felt that she was the only one who got to see Emily finally out of it. Emily's mind and soul were with Paige, but her body was getting impatient. She squeezed her legs together as her body squirmed beneath Paige. Paige's groping became more purposeful in response to the signals from Emily's body; her own body matching the movement of Emily's beneath her. She pinched Emily's nipples, causing Emily to gasp and relax her tensed-together legs. Paige seized the opportunity and entered Emily's slick opening with two fingers that met with no resistance. Her other hand caressed Emily's face, and Emily sucked on her thumb, biting down on it when Paige hit just the right spot. Emily could feel that Paige was wet again, as Paige's thighs came down on either side of Emily's right leg. Emily reached up and forcefully pulled Paige into a kiss. Paige's fingers never lost their rhythm inside her. Emily lapsed into staccato, high-pitched whines. She slid her hands down to Paige's side, stroking the abs that she loved so much. She dug her fingertips into Paige's ass, and Paige knew that she was close. She added a finger, twiddling Emily's clit with her thumb. Emily's explosion was epic.

"So, what do you say, McCullers?" Emily asked, gently stroking Paige's arm from the side. "Should we take this international? Cross some countries off of our list?"

Paige smirked, rolling back on top of her and sitting up to straddle her. "What do you think?" she laughed.

"It's weird about that map, though," Paige said out of nowhere, rolling back onto the bed, next to Emily. Emily sleepily agreed. "How do you think everybody found out?" Emily was suddenly wide awake.

She knew that she couldn't pretend not to know. Paige could read her too well. Instead, she tried to play it off like a joke. "Yeah, how could anyone have figured that out?"

"Okay, Em," Paige said patiently. "What's going on?"

Emily let out a long sigh. "Someone overheard you doing your sexy talk to me on one of our road trips, saying that you couldn't wait to add another X."

"'Someone,' huh?"

Emily ignored the sarcastic comment and pressed on with the story. "So, she came up to me later and asked me what it meant, and I told her that you kept a map with Xs in all of the places where we've competed together since we started dating. So, she said, 'Aww, that's really sweet,' and I said, 'Yeah, but you can't let on that you know about, because Paige would die of embarrassment if she knew that anyone had found out about her sentimental side.'" Emily looked over to see how Paige was taking this. Paige waved her hand impatiently, wanting to hear how the story ended.

"I, mean, Paige, I wasn't trying to keep secrets from you. It's just that I didn't want you to get all embarrassed about this." Paige nodded her head rapidly, still impatient for the rest of the story. "So, then, about a month ago, she asked me 'Do you think that you could scan Paige's map for me? We want to do something special since it's the last season that you two will be competing together for Stanford,' and I said, 'No way! Paige can't know that anybody knows about the map, or she'd physically die!' And she said, 'No, no! We'll be discreet! It's just something special that we want to give the two of you,' and, Paige, they sounded so sincere, and they really wanted to do something nice, so I scanned it and gave them the file."

"Uh huh," Paige said. A few moments later, she added, "And you're never going to tell me who it was, are you?"

Emily turned over to face Paige, laying her hand on Paige's chest. "Does it matter, Paige? Can you just blame me? It was my fault. Be mad at me."

Paige kissed her on the cheek. "I'm not mad, honestly. I'm just curious." She kissed Emily again and turned over to sleep.

Emily hated keeping secrets from Paige. She wrapped her arm around Paige's middle and pulled herself in closer. "It was Deb. Deb Canyon," she said into the back of Paige's shoulder. "She was the one who overheard. And she and the freshmen girls were the ones who came up with the idea of getting a picture of the map. But Paige," Emily pleaded, pulling Paige onto her back and looking down at her with big, pleading eyes, "you know how those freshmen girls idolize you! Honestly, if they thought that you were mad at them, it would devastate them!"

Paige looked up at Emily and her big brown eyes. "And yet," she said chuckling, "I'm actually not mad!"

"Really?" Emily's face scrunched up with the question.

"Really," Paige said, leaning up to kiss Emily. They settled into sleeping positions before Emily broke the silence again.

"I think that some of the freshmen have started maps of their own." She could feel the laughter start to work its way up Paige's body.

"Maybe we could autograph them before graduation," Paige joked.