A/N The fact that these two would have worked it out is breaking my heart into bits. So here, have sappy Paige apologizing to Mike.
Two weeks later.
When she moves her hand to touch him and he's not there, Paige panics. She flicks her eyelids open and hyperventilates for the first couple of seconds after waking. She tries to calm herself until she hears the shower water hitting the tiled walls, then she lets out a relieved sigh. Paige pushes the sheets off herself and climbs out of his bed, tip-toeing her way to the bathroom.
She watches him until he notices that someone is standing in the doorway. She turns around bashfully, then looks back at him. He stares at her, water rushing over his toned arms, and waves her in. Paige doesn't even undress, she just moves the sliding glass open and steps inside.
Paige whispers "Mike.." and cradles herself in between his arms.
He pulls her tightly against his body, and kisses the top of her head.
"It's alright, Paige, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."
"Mike I'm so sorry." Paige whimpers into his collarbone, as she presses herself closer into his torso. He won't feel the tears running down her cheeks since they mix with the droplets falling from the shower head.
He reaches down to turn off the water, he hears her softly crying.
He looks at her and says ,"let's get you dried off, huh?" and pulls her oversized sleeping shirt over her head.
"I shouldn't have come in here."
"Paige, everything is fine." He states, and wraps a towel around her shoulders.
"No it's not! I killed you Mike...I killed you."
He says nothing. It's been six months since the doctors shocked his heart out of arrest, and he flashed his eyes open to multiple sharp pains in his left side, and his lungs feeling like fire. It's been one and a half months since he's been clean from the substance abuse problem he started when he could not physically deal with the pain stemming from his wounds. Mike had originally forgiven Paige, and then as he progressed into addiction, he resented her. He had forgiven her twice, the second being when she watched him like hawk after he woke up in an ice bath, and she needed to know that he would not die. Again.
You're the one that I love
After a minute of listening to Paige's sobs, he speaks. "I forgive you. I know I said it before, but that was because I couldn't let do something stupid. Now, I forgive you because of how you've helped me in the last month. I know you care about me, Paige, and I forgive you for what you did."
"It's not you who should be apologizing. I'm the reason you couldn't stop taking the pills. I'm the reason you were in so much pain. I pressured you too hard over Sylmar, and you only wanted to fix the situation. You just wanted everything to get better, between us and for those girls. I pushed you too far, then I betrayed you. How could I do that?"
Paige sits down on the floor and balls up. Mike sits down next to her and places his head in the crevice between her neck and shoulder. They stay in this position for the next few minutes. Then Paige speaks again. "I hope one day we can go back to the start."
"We can," Mike begins, "we're not the same people we were then." He kisses her forehead, and Paige kisses his still-warm-from-the-shower cheek.