"So you found Briggs?" Mike asks into his phone, as he peaks out the window of his hotel room at the setting sun in Dubai.
"Yeah we got him back. He's a little worse for wear but we found him before the gang took any limbs." Paige answers into her phone back at Graceland, looking over from the dining area to where Briggs is sitting on the couch with Charlie.
"So he wasn't screwing us?" Mike says, still not sure he buys the whole story that Briggs wasn't somehow involved in Jakes' escape to the Island in Dubai Mike had tracked him down to.
"Nope, just trying to once again run another angle he didn't feel like telling us about. What good is living in Graceland if you don't tell your team what the plan is?" Paige scoffs.
"Well, keep an eye on him, ok? Something just doesn't feel right." Mike says, reaching into the mini fridge for a water.
"You always say that about Briggs." Paige grins as she holds the phone to here ear and balances on the edge of the dining room table. "How's the hunt in Dubai going?"
"Not much yet. My plane landed just half an hour ago. It's too late to get much now, so I'm just going to try to sleep off this jet lag, and get a fresh start in the morning. He's here though. I have that feeling."
"Ok, well I'll let you get some rest then." Paige tells him, "Call me tomorrow when you know more."
"Don't hang up yet." Mike stops her from her attempts at a goodbye. As soon as the words are out, he worries he sounded too needy.
"Ok. I can't talk too long, Johnny's due back now with Hector's at any moment, but I can stay on a little longer…" Paige agrees, not quite ready to say goodbye yet either.
"I've got time, if you want to have that talk." Mike says, wondering if Paige might feel more comfortable talking about them when there's an entire ocean separating them physically.
After they'd chased down Courtney they'd discovered that she was on her way to an Island off of Dubai, a nonextradition country, presumably to meet Jakes. Charlie, Paige and Johnny stayed behind to try to locate Briggs who had gone off the grid. Apparently he had tried to cut Jakes off using his contacts in a local Mexican street gang but had gotten in over his head. Mike had to leave before they located him, catching the next flight to Dubai to chase down Jakes. It had all happened so fast Mike hadn't had any time to talk to Paige about what happened between them in the car, but a sixteen hour airplane ride alone with his thoughts gave him plenty of time to obsess about it.
"Mike, I can't right now." Paige knows Mike wants to talk about them, but she's not ready yet. She needs time to think about what she wants to say, plus she's not completely alone in the house and doesn't need her housemates eves dropping. "Briggs and Charlie are here and I don't think..."
"Ok… then I'll talk and you can listen. Tell me when I go too far. Green. Yellow. Red." Mike says, pushing the issue.
"Fine." Paige sighs in agreement.
"You're supposed to say 'green'." Mike reminds her.
"Ok Simon-Says, 'green'." Paige rolls her eyes with a grin.
"You would love this island. It's stunning." Mike says, starting her off easy as he stares out the window of his hotel room.
"Green." Paige smiles at his game, looking over to where Briggs and Charlie are reviewing a file, completely ignoring her.
"I can see why Jakes would take Courtney here. It's got all these beautiful ocean views. It's the most romantic place I've ever seen." Mike continues on with idle chit-chat.
"Green." Paige smiles.
"The bed's super comfortable too. I wish you were here with me." Mike presses his luck.
"Yellow." Paige is still smiling, as she calls him on it.
"Ok, as beautiful as this island is, I'm homesick." Mike rephrases.
"Green." Paige accepts his correction.
"I miss you." Mike says softly.
"Yel- ok, greenish." Paige hesitates and changes her mind.
"I've been thinking about you a lot recently." Mike says cautiously, and before Paige can respond he continues, "I keep thinking about what happened the other day in the car."
"..." There's a brief moment of silence as Mike waits for the 'red' he knows is coming. He's starting to wonder if maybe she just hung up on him, when he hears her ask softly,
"And?" Paige forgets the game momentarily, wanting to hear more of what he has to say about it.
"And I'm sorry I won't be there to take you out dancing on Friday." Mike smiles that she didn't stop him.
"Well the case is more important…" Paige wipes at a smudge on the countertop.
"If I could change things between us, what happened, I would." Mike says resolutely, leaning forward on the bed he's sitting on the edge of. She hasn't stopped him yet, and he's going to keep pushing as far ahead as he can.
"Like what?" Paige keeps her responses vague, glancing over again towards where Paul and Charlie are still chatting.
"I wouldn't have come in that first night." Mike says resolutely, like he's thought about this a lot.
"Oh?" Paige arches an eyebrow, Mike's answer taking her off guard.
"Not right then. I would have finished my phone call. Really finished it. All of it. I would have made it clear to Jess then and there it was over." Mike says with determination, trying to make Paige believe how sincere his words are.
"Mike…" Paige knows they're getting into dangerous territory and tries to cut him off.
"And then when I hung up the phone with Jess, I would have called you." Mike's answer once again surprises Paige.
"What?! You were literally outside my door. You could have just knocked. Hell both the literal and metaphorical doors were wide open..." Paige catches herself saying too much, and glances over to where Charlie and Briggs still don't appear to care who or what she's speaking to.
"Yes, and I would have called, because I remember exactly how things would have gone if I knocked." Mike says with a cocky grin she can practically hear through the phone.
"What do you remember?" Paige's grin matches Mike's.
"I remember everything." Mike assures her, pausing just enough to let her imagination drift to the events of that night.
"I'm hazy on the details, refresh my memory?" Paige teases breathlessly.
"You walked by. I wanted to talk to you, but I was on the phone and figured you were heading to bed. Then you dropped your towel, and I couldn't breathe. I told myself it had to be a mistake. You forgot to close the door, or didn't know I was still out there... but part of me knew this was you. Nothing you do is a mistake. So I went to your door and...the look you gave me Paige. Fuck." Closing his eyes he can still see her standing in front of him staring at him enchantingly.
"And then?" Paige teases, and Mike smiles, because he did not intend for this conversation to turn into phone sex, but it seems that's exactly what she wants. He briefly considers undoing his pants and granting her wish.
"I kissed you. And this time, you didn't stop me, or tell me I was lost or whatever bullshit excuse you gave me the summer before. This time, I kissed every inch of you and I didn't stop kissing you until you were breathless and begging laying on that gray throw on your bed. Remember? Your thighs over my shoulders. Your fingers gripping my hair as I devoured you, which I did, until you were begging me to take my clothes off and join you on the bed." Mike says wickedly, wanting her to remember in vivid detail their first night together. He can't brag about it to others, but he can to her and he's very proud that he managed to get her off three times that night before he removed even an article of his own clothing.
"I did not beg." Paige whispers into the phone, angling her body away from her roommates so they can't see the flush of her cheeks.
"Oh as I recall you begged. Repeatedly. What do you remember?" Mike asks her lustily, and yeah this was definitely going to turn into phone sex. Even miles apart from each other it seems they can't control themselves.
"Not much, it was over so fast." Paige teases sarcastically, trying to lighten the mood and poking at his ego just a bit.
"Liar." Mike calls her out with a smile, "We were at it all night. And I know that, because I remember the way you look naked above me with the sun rising behind you. Most beautiful thing I've ever seen..."
"Fine, that night was incredible." Paige admits.
"And lasted an impressive length of time which required a very skilled lover with great stamina." Mike continues on for her.
"You know you're good in bed, Mike." Paige rolls her eyes.
"It wouldn't kill you to say it every now and then." Mike playfully pouts.
"Fine. You are a sex god." Paige says dryly, before her voice drops to a soft serious tone, "But that night aside, everything was over too soon, Mike."
"I know." Mike agrees sadly, "If I had known… well, anyway. In my new version, I wouldn't have come in, even though finding the willpower to resist might have killed me."
"Yeah… probably for the best." Paige leans up against the wall wondering how things might have been different and if she would have given up the memory of those few weeks with Mike for the ability to change what happened after.
"In my new version, I would have known better than to come in and I would have called. I would have called and asked you out on a date. A real date." Mike says, clearing his throat and beginning to pace his room nervously, while trying to sound confident.
"You are so cheesy!" Paige laughs at his change in tone, not believing for a second in any reality Mike would have not come to her bed that night, "Ok, so then what happens in this new version of yours? Do we go split a milkshake at the sock hop?"
"No, you would have said no." Mike says confidently.
"Really?" Paige rolls her eyes.
"Yeah, you'd never give in that easily. You'd call me 'cheesy'. Reminded me how I was only here a short time, and all the reasons why us dating would complicate things, but tell me if I wanted a fling your door was open." Mike says, not sounding the least bit bothered by this imaginary response from Paige.
"And that would be it?" Paige smiles, knowing it's not.
"Oh hell no. I would have then proceeded to woo you so covertly you wouldn't even realize we were in a relationship until about a month in." Mike says with a cocky grin.
"How?" Paige laughs.
"You wouldn't see it coming. I'd say I needed you to go undercover as my fiance for a case, but it would start bleeding over into real life, until you'd start questioning whether I was sending flowers as part of the cover or because you had a big breakthrough in one of your cases, or just because."
"This is your way of romancing women. Making them work extra shifts going under with dangerous felons?" Paige rolls her eyes.
"Not women. You." Mike grins. "You would have loved it. The thrill of the undercover work. We would start kissing out in the field and eventually we'd be renting motel rooms and turning off our coms."
"That's your grand plan to fix the past? A phone call and a newlywed undercover play?" Paige giggles.
"There's so much I would change. I would have supported you more when it came to finding your girls. You still might not have had the backup you wanted, but I would have been there instead of Jakes. You would have never been taken." Mike's voice takes on a serious tone as the mood shifts.
"If I wasn't taken, how would we have found them?" Paige asks softly, because even looking back she knows some things were inevitable.
"We would have a found a way. Together." Mike assures her. "We're such a good team, Paige."
"Mike, there wasn't another way." Paige slips behind the wall out of sight of Charlie and Briggs and whispers softly into the phone. "If you could go back. Knowing what you know now. Would you have taken Lena instead of me?"
Mike hesitates as he considers how to word his answer.
"Mike?" Paige prompts softly.
"No." Mike finally answers honestly. "I choose you. Every time. And I know that's not the answer you want, but I won't apologize for it, because I'm not sorry. I choose you, Paige… Paige I… I love you."
"..."
"Paige?" Mike grips the phone closer sitting up nervously in his bed.
"..."
"Paige are you still there?" Mike asks nervous at her silence.
"..." There's still no reply but Mike hears her breathing over the line.
"Red?" Mike asks her knowingly.
"Red." Her voice comes back choked.
"I'm sorry. I know… I know now's not the time to say it. I should have said it earlier. I tried." Mike can't go back now that he's finally said the words.
"When?" Paige's voice still sounds hoarse.
"So many times. I nearly blurted it out the first time I met you." Mike stumbles over his words, hoping she doesn't hang up the phone.
"What?" Paige asks, trying to remember how she could have missed it.
"We were in the bathroom. I asked why you didn't get out from your case, and you said 'because you wanted the bastard'. I knew I loved you right then and there. I should have told you. Maybe not right then but… I should have told you sooner than now." A part of Mike feels relief at finally having the words out in the open. It was one less secret between them.
"Why didn't you?" Paige asks softly.
"I was scared you didn't feel the same way." Mike sinks back into the bed, his voice as soft as hers.
"And you're not afraid of that anymore?" Paige asks.
"No, I'm pretty much terrified, but I figure, how much worse can things get?" Mike says with a bitter laugh.
"Well, that's true." Paige agrees her voice sounding sad. There's a pause as they both sit silently in the weight of the moment.
"Are you ever going to be able to look at me and not… not be reminded of her?" Mike finally asks, because at this point the cards are on the table.
"Yes." Paige answers honestly, "I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at myself in the mirror and not be reminded, but I don't think of Lena when I look at you anymore."
"When you see me... What do you think about?" Mike asks, softly.
"About what I did to you." Paige's voice shakes, and it sounds like she may start crying. "About what if you hadn't survived. How sorry I am."
"I told you, I don't care about that. I forgive you, Paige. If that's what's holding you back from this… don't let it." Mike pleads.
"Johnny's here with the food. I gotta go." Paige says, wiping away the tears that are threatening to fall.
"Yeah, ok." Mike says, realizing this is as far as he's going to get today. "I'll see you in a couple days. The island's not that big. Not too many places for Jakes to hide."
"Ok. Be safe." Paige says, trying to regain her composure.
"Yeah, you too." Mike says, and Paige hangs up the phone.
"I love you." Mike says to the disconnected line.
