So, this is the fourth and second to last installation of this story. It will be five parts in total. The chapter turned out way longer than I intended, thus the long time since the last installation (I have been writing this chapter on and off for the better part of two months believe it or not). This is the first draft because after taking such a long time to write it I just wanted to get it out there and out of my system, so if you have any corrections or comments on how it could be improved I would be glad to hear it. And if you have any questions about the universe or characters don't hesitate to comment or PM me. And once again thanks for the reviews, I really appreciate them.
Emily was jolted abruptly awake from a dreamless sleep she didn't remember slipping into by the sound of someone rapping at the front door. She felt the commotion of the other woman slipping from underneath the sheets, cursing under her breath and making a run for the door while trying to slip on some of the clothing that laid thrown around the bedroom like shrapnel on a battlefield. She feigned sleeping until she was alone in the room but as soon as she heard the door being closed delicately, she got out of the bed, recovered her pants and a shirt she didn't recognize but pulled on nonetheless before sleuthing towards the door that was slightly ajar and put her ear against the opening.
Paige's voice came from the other end of the living room, close to where Emily remembered that the exit door was. She also heard a man's voice who seemed to be engaging with her in a debate:
"You said you'd bring him around tomorrow," Paige said, seemingly annoyed. "That's what we agreed on."
"I know sweetie," the man's voice responded, his gentle tone surprising Emily. "Something just came up at the Upper Council and they need me there right away. I know that you're off duty today and he doesn't have his training, so…"
"I know. He's my responsibility. You don't have to play the guilt card here. Especially when it comes to him."
"I knew you could be persuaded."
"Well, don't thank me just yet. I need to pack my things up. Can you give me a few minutes?"
"Momma P!" a child's voice boomed through the corridor, followed by the sound of running feet. "Can we go to the Pyramid Park today?"
"Sure buddy. Just give me a few minutes. I need to get a few things sorted out. Did you say hi to Sergeant Cavanaugh yet?"
"Is he here?"
"Yup, he's directing a meeting just a couple of floors down. If you ask nicely I'm sure he'll let you try on his hat again."
"Cool!"
"I'll take you buddy," the man's voice said reassuringly before turning more formal. "I'll see you at 915 hours soldier?"
"Yes sir," Paige responded, the irony in her voice not lost on Emily who was struggling to take in all the new information this conversation was pouring over her. She tried to take a deep breath, composing herself as she heard the door being shut again. Either the other woman had the inherent ability to move with a natural stealth or her shocked mind had lost its ability to tell time correctly because it only felt like a moment before the bedroom door was opened and her face appeared, looking half cautious, half apologetic.
"Oh you're up?" she asks, seeing the brunette standing before her before picking up on the crossed arms and defensive stance. "You caught all of that? Sorry. This wasn't meant to happen. Not today at least. I wish you didn't have to hear that."
"I don't even know what the hell that was!" Emily exclaims a little louder than she had planned to.
"It's complicated," Paige answers apologetically, not looking back at her.
"Yeah, I bet," Emily answers before grabbing her jacket. "You should be packing."
"Em, please…"
"It's already 903 hours," Emily says, glancing at her watch before turning back towards the other woman, adding coldly: "Soldier."
"I don't think you're getting the right picture here."
"Does it matter though? You moved on. I get it. And now I'm only someone that's in the way. So I'll show myself out."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Most of the soldiers had already cleared the mess hall, leaving the three women at the circular table near the back corner. The blond drew a new card, sighing as she got a look at it before sticking it in the middle of the ones she already had in her hand.
"So you just left?" Hanna asks, glancing over at Emily.
"Well, yeah," Emily responds with a shrug. "What else was I supposed to do? There she was, arguing custody days over a kid that I didn't even know existed. I just decided to save whatever little dignity I had left and make a run for it."
"So, you know without any shadow of a doubt that it was Paige's kid?" Spencer asks, breaking her intense silent stare at her hand.
"Well, if you put it that way, no I can't say that with a hundred percent certainty," Emily says, annoyed that her friends aren't taking her side on the matter. "But she talked about how he was her responsibility, so it sure sounded like it."
"You can't base your accusations on how things sound like," Spencer says and shuffles her cards slightly. "Did you actually give her a chance to explain any of it?"
"Where is this coming from?" Emily exclaims, her annoyance rising up to a notable anger. "Weren't you the one that always believed that Paige McCullers shouldn't be trusted? Shouldn't you be rejoicing in the fact that you were right about this?"
"That was when we were teenagers. It was a long, long time ago. Besides, she kept on kicking my ass in Pyramid. It might have hurt my pride a bit."
"Spence is right you know," Hanna says, giving up on trying to organize her cards, laying them down on the table besides her. "There is such a thing as 'innocent until proven guilty'."
"Actually, that's not the legal term," Spencer says, turning towards Hanna. "It's 'not guilty' until proven guilty."
"Whatever," Hanna says, shaking her head. "Aren't you content with kicking my ass at Triad. Do you need to beat my ass at legal trivia too? How come you didn't take the bar exam since you're such an expert in legal procedures?"
"I did. And I qualified. I just thought my talents would be better spent working in the field."
"Well, how noble of you," Hanna mutters.
"You're just avoiding the fact that your hand is a complete disaster, aren't you?"
"Don't you change the subject Spencer Hastings!"
"You are. You totally are. Is it because you betted your Cheetos ?"
"Those are the last ones I have. I was so sure that I had luck with me tonight."
"Hand them over Hanna."
"Over my dead body."
"Guys, guys," Emily says, raising her arms. "Can we focus here You might be right about this whole thing, but I think I'm just going to have to take some time to digest this entire thing…"
"In case you forgot," Hanna says, turning towards her friend. "Time isn't exactly of the essence here. We are on the edge of being wiped out by flesh eating mongrels, pretty much on a daily basis here. The future is just a fucking concept. You act today or you might not get the chance to act at all. I get that you're hurt after how things turned out with Ali, but you can't keep on diverting what she did on everybody else. Other people deserve the benefit of the doubt, just like they did before. You used to be someone that believed in that. Who is to say that you can't become that person again?"
"It's not that simple," Emily mutters, feeling Hanna's words sink in, clawing themselves into her as they do. As much as she hates to admit it, there might be some truth in them. "And besides, it's not like she's been around to try to explain things."
"Neither have you," Hanna said and slammed her cards down on the table. "Forget it. I fold."
"Such gullibility," Spencer says, revealing her unimpressive hand.
"You fooled me!"
"And you fell for it!" Spencer says smirking, as she raked her winnings in. "Remember, what you have on your hand is not always of the essence, but much rather your execution."
"You're beginning to sound mysterious and cryptic, kind of like Ali used to be," Hanna says, letting out a loud sigh. "Know what? I'll make you a deal: one more game, double or nothing. You in?"
"Deal!" Spencer answers and started dealing the cards again.
"Uhm guys, still here," Emily says annoyed. "You're not going to deal me?"
"You have somewhere else that you should be."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Paige was the last person leaving the Council that night. She collected her folders together and folded her jacket neatly over her arm before heading out the door. Having dropped Jackson off for his weekday stay at the training camp and seeing the lonely night stretch out before her she wasn't exactly in a great hurry to get back to her room. It wasn't until she had closed the doors to the meeting room and was about to head up the stairs that she noticed that she wasn't alone.
"How did you get in here?" Paige asks Emily who was sitting at the bench in the far corner of the hall.
"Sergeant Cavenaugh let me in. Spencer still has him by the nose hairs I guess," Emily answers as she gets up from the bench she was previously occupying.
"Ew, that is an image that I will not get out of my head for a while."
"Now that you mention it," Emily says and lets out a little giggle before becoming serious again. "Can we talk? I know I freaked out a little the last time we saw one another…"
"A little?"
"Okay. More like a lot. It was just a lot of things to process at once and I tend not to be so good at that."
"I doubt anybody is really good at that."
"Are you just going to keep on filling in and what I'm saying?"
"Sorry. Yes, we should talk. Maybe not here though."
"Do you know some place?"
"Yes. Yes I do."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Well," Emily says looking over the the roof of the skyscraper. "I was not expecting this of you."
"What were you expecting?" she heard Paige asking behind here.
"Not...this." Emily says looking at the other woman before they both burst out laughing.
"I come here alot," Paige says once they fall silent again. "When I'm done with the Council and I don't fancy staring at the walls in my hotel room."
"Doesn't it ever feel a little sterile living there?" Emily asks.
"I don't live there. Over the week while working for the Council I have to stay there because it's close by. But on the weekends I usually take Jackson back home. I have a little house at the edge of the city. It's not much but it's all mine."
Emily is itching for questioning the other woman more about exactly who the hell Jackson is but at the last moment she decides to bite her tongue. Thinking that Hanna was right that they don't exactly live in a world where passing judgement is the most important thing anymore she decides to throw all distrust into the wind. So instead of pressing the questions that she is dying to get answers to, she decides that she'll take the initiative of being honest and just seeing where that will take them:
"I was sad after you left. I was, I really was. I tried sending letters, finding people that were being sent to Cali to carry a message for me, but nothing ever seemed to be working. So, sooner or later I turned to somebody else for comfort."
"Another girl?"
"Yeah. Her name was Samara. We saw each other for a while, but sooner rather than later Mona pulled a particularly nasty prank on me as A, which was engineered to make Samara distrust me. She broke up with me so it worked."
Paige looks at Emily with a neutral expression before asking:
"Was she the only one?"
"No. There were… others. There was a chef in one of the barracks that we stayed over in when we made a stop in Nebraska. I thought we had a connection but it turns out she also had another connection… with her husband."
"Ouch. That has got to hurt."
"Well, maybe I just have it in for things I can't really have."
"You said others. In a plural form."
"Well, it was only a couple really. Talia over in Nebraska, and then there was Ali…"
"I'm not so sure I want to hear this."
"Well, I think you should. The reason all of my other relationships went the way they did was dishonesty. I want to be truthful to you. Ali let me kiss her, before she disappeared and way before I met you. And I thought it was this incredible gift. Once I got some distance on her I started to think that she might just have been playing me. But then when she came back and you went away with barely a goodbye. Time passed, we finished our training and then we went on that horrendous hike to get to California. And then my short lived romance with Talia went out the window and we were back on the road again and she was just there you know?"
"I'm sorry but I have a hard time picturing Alison as emotionally supportive."
"I thought you never knew Alison…"
"Not personally. But I heard stories. She sounded like a very dynamic person. But supportive. Not that much."
"She wasn't exactly supportive. It was more like, she said all the things that I wanted to hear you know?"
"I can imagine."
"So, somewhere between here and Utah, me and Ali started happening. But it turned out to be a ruse. She was distracting me from what I should have really been concentrating on: the heist. So when Rollins and his men rushed in I was completely blindsided. I was the tactics commander. This is my speciality. We lost so many good men, just because I refused to believe that Alison would ever go behind my back."
"You couldn't have seen that coming," Paige says, looking over to Emily who already has tears forming in her eyes. "I hate her for doing that to you."
"I don't really think that she regretted it," Emily said wiping her eyes. "Regretting it would mean she cared. And I don't think she did."
The two women sat in silence for a while, with Emily trying hard to compose herself, not having expected to get so upset by enclosing the depths of Ali's betrayal. They observed the buzzing and and beeping from down below: so massive and close and somehow so far away and tiny from where they were sitting.
"Okay, that's all I got," Emily says, letting out a nervous chuckle. "And since I came clean, mind telling me why you have a little boy calling you Momma?"
"Well, that's a long story."
"We have time. Is he someone you had with an ex? That guy that came to drop him off maybe?"
"Gosh no. My dating history with boys began and ended with Sean Acker."
"I thought you just got into a food fight with him at the caféteria."
"Well, now you have cause and reaction mam."
"So, who was that guy at your door."
"That would have been my dad, Nick McCullers. Jackson goes to this prestigious military prep school in town during the week and I take care of him during the weekends."
"Wait, so you always get the weekends off?"
"That's one of the perks of being a high official. But I still go to the base a lot to help out. Take Jackson with me. He's fascinated with the larger machines."
"So, Jackson is not biologically yours?"
"No. He's not my bio child."
"So, the child of an ex?"
"Well not really. There was only one official ex since I came here. Her name was Shana. I think we both knew that she was a substitute for something I would never have again so the relationship fell apart pretty swiftly. But two years after I got relocated to California there were news of a city getting annihilated, between the border of here and Arizona, so I got sent with a resque squad to check if there were any survivors. There were two: Jackson and… Jo."
As soon as she spoke Emily picked up on how her tone changed; it became raspier, the pitch higher, like thin glass:
"Jackson was around four years old at that time that they arrived. Jo told me that his father, her husband, had died in the annihilation. Apparently they had gotten attacked by guerilla war forces. Jo and Jackson were the only ones that survived. My dad set me up to introduce them into living here in Cali. Jo used to work as a chemical engineer back in her city, so she got some work here with the military. I allowed them to live in my house, until they got settled in you know. That turned into a week, and then that week turned into a month. And before I knew it I had grown more accustomed to them being there than being alone."
"So, what happened?"
"When they had been here a little over a year we got sent together on a mission. It wasn't suppose to be a big deal. Jo had been working within city lines but we needed her with us. It was suppose to be a simple mission, locate a deserted factory, retrieve essential chemicals. But she was nervous. Said she had a bad feeling about the whole thing. I thought it was just nerves, you know? But once we got out there I had a bad feeling too. We got ambushed, it seemed like someone had used a tracker to attracts a whole horde towards us. We had to haul ass back to the truck and get the heck out of there. But in the chaos we lost Jo. It was completely unexpected. She was there one moment and gone the next. But I didn't have a choice. We had to get out of there or more people would have died."
"I understand that. Everybody would. That's what we're trained to do. In some cases there is no other choice but to do damage control."
"Well, a five year old is going to be a little less understanding. For a while he wouldn't ever look at me. I got a month off after the incident. My dad must have pulled some massive strings to get that for me but even though we didn't talk about it I think he understood that losing Jo hit me and Jackson hard. He didn't come out of his room for two weeks. When I came in he hid under the bed, so I just left him a tray of food that I would retrieve once it was empty."
"So, how did you get through to him?"
"I didn't. I worked around the house. Little projects you know. I like to keep myself busy like that. I started fixing up my bike, something that I had meant to do in ages. And one day he was just standing there in front of me. So I asked him to pass me the screwdriver, which he did. He told me that Momma J would have loved what I did to the bike. That's the first time he called me that, Momma P. Ironic, because Jo wasn't around anymore he didn't need to differentiate between us like that. But I think it was his way of coping with things. So it became a thing. Calling me Momma P. I think Jo would have liked it."
Emily leaned in closer to observe Paige's smirk, noticing a hint of something more:
"Paige. Jo was more to you than a friend wasn't she?"
"Well," Paige says and started blushing. "Not like that. At least, not at first. We tried staying strictly professional. But then with the living-together situation we started getting kind of chummy. And I'd often take care of Jackson for her. He is the sort of running, jumping, climbing trees type of boy and I was more fit to chase after him than Jo was. She was a lot more reserved and studious so she really appreciated that I had plenty of energy to spend with him. It was during one of those days when we were chasing around on the front porch that I caught her looking at me. She was considering something. But I couldn't tell what, but I knew that whatever it was, I felt it too. When we were commanded on that mission it intensified until the night before we were leaving she climbed into my bed. We didn't really talk about it afterwards. I thought that when we got back we'd discuss things. Find out whatever this was. That sounds so dumb right now."
"No it doesn't," Emily says. "You had no idea that this was going to happen. I am so deeply sorry."
The silence stretched before the two of them before Emily found the words for the question that she simply couldn't not ask:
"Did you love her?"
"I'm not sure," Paige says, her eyes pinned to the concrete. "But I think I could have loved her you know?"
"I know."
"I'm sorry. You must think I'm such a gober. Getting sentimental about someone else while on a date with you…"
"So this is a date now?"
"Well, now that you mention it, probably not. The word just popped into my head. I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize. I'd like that."
"Like what?"
"To go on a date. With you. Now that all this stuff is out of the way. If you don't mind me being so frank."
"Not at all. But please, can I take you somewhere a little more upscale than a rooftop."
"You may," Emily says, before placing her hands on each side of the other woman's face and planting a kiss on her lips. "Now, will you walk me home? It's getting late."
The girls don't press for details, even with Emily slipping back into the bunker in the early hours of the night. Despite having warned Paige about it being late already, the two women couldn't help but to take a longer route, enjoying the silent presence of each other as they treaded several small paths, leading up to the barracks. The morning after they are finally receive word that they are to report to a superior commander and receive new assignments since it has been decided that they will be staying in California for a while. When they return to the barracks late in the evening after an intense day of planning, everyone is too tired and too hungry to even attempt to have a conversation. But once they get back they notice a familiar figure standing by the entrance.
"Paige," Emily says approaching the other woman who is still dressed in her uniform. "Did you just get back from the Council?"
"I did," Paige says. "And by the looks of it you've had a busy evening too. Have you eaten yet?"
"Not since noon," Emily remarks. "We've had a lot of things to catch up on after our R&R week."
"Would it be okay if I take you to dinner?"
"Can you take me to dinner to?" Hanna asks loudly, making Aria turn around and slapping her hand. "What? I'm starving!"
"Maybe another time Hanna," Emily answers, her lips cracking into a smile at the blonde's antics.
The auburn haired woman takes one look at her and her mouth becomes tense suppressing laughter as they hear Hanna dramatically rubbing her arm and producing a low wail:
"Excellent. Do you want to get changed or should we get going right away?"
"I'm fine as I am. Let's go," Emily answers, linking her arm with hers and turning to the girls to see if they're okay with her leaving so abruptly. As she caught their eye she noticed that they were done doing the nod of approval and were already engaged in other things: Aria and Spencer grudgingly passed crumpled twenty dollar bills to Hanna who folded them into the pocket of her khakis with great jubilation.
"What did we just witness?" Paige asked who had also witnessed the exchange.
"I believe that they had a bet placed on whether I would work things out with you," Emily says, blushing a little at the thought. "And I believe that Hanna finally won something."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Emily's first real night out in California turns out to be very memorable. Paige shows her around the dining district, which has several carts set out with vendors cooking the small dishes on open fire. They finally settle for a corner booth in a little hole in the wall, composed of a couple of carts strung together to form a sort of room.
"This is so weird," Emily remarks once they've ordered their selection of differently roasted meat along with a few salad leaves and something that looks like thick gravy.
"Is it bad weird or good weird?" Paige asks, placing a couple of meat chunks inside a leaf.
"Oh, definitely good weird. You know, back in Rosewood I always knew there existed bigger things, which had some resemblance of the old world. You know, like hotels and restaurant streets. But seeing it with my own two eyes, experiencing it, that's something else."
"I used to feel the same way when I first came here five years ago," Paige says. "But you just wait. There are so many other things that you have yet to see. Like the Night Light Street and the Pyramid Park."
"The Pyramid Park? Like, where we can play Pyramid?"
"Well, not exactly. It's a place where we go to watch other people play Pyramid. Like, you know, professional players."
"You still have professional Pyramid games? I thought that was gone with the epidemic."
"Not around here. Sure, it's not as big of a business as it used to be but there are still held games with the best and most ambitious. Most of them are from the military. Jackson loves to go, he says that someday he wants to become…" she suddenly falls silent, realizing what she has just said and choking slightly on her food as she does so.
"No, it's fine," Emily says reassuringly. "I was actually thinking that it might be a good idea if I would meet him sometimes if that's okay with you."
"Yeah, definitely. He needs to be around more people than just me, Toby and my dad. We don't have any remaining family…" Paige trails off before having a revelation. "Why don't you come with us tomorrow?"
"Are you sure? I don't want to intrude."
"You won't be intruding. I'd love to have you with us."
"Did you just ask me out again Paige McCullers?"
The other woman dips her head:
"I guess I did."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The Pyramid Park turns out to be even bigger than Emily could have imagined. The seats that Paige got them are right at the ground level and it's hard to see who is more excited: she or Jackson. The boy quickly takes a liking to her, appreciating that she allows him to give a detailed pitch about his favorite players and their scores this season. He even makes her promise that she'll come over soon to play Pyramid with him.
"Is Jackson trying to set us up for another date?" Emily whispers to Paige, producing a snicker from her.
"I have trained him well," she responds.
Not long after that weekend is over Paige starts finding excuses to drop into the barracks to see Emily. With their re-evaluation in full flight, the training is rigorous but despite that Emily can't help but to smile every time that she sees the other woman, waiting by the entry, fiddling awkwardly with her hat and fighting desperately to maintain her composure. She takes her for a run, maintaining that she knows a solid routine that will help her receive better marks on the physical evaluation. The day after when Emily returns for her lunch break she notices a note that has been stuck to her locker.
Meet me for lunch? The coordinates are on the back. Do your best tactics officer.
"Always the challenger," Emily says, crumpling the note while stifling a laughter.
Once she's able to find the coordinates she also finds herself standing in front of Paige who is sat down on a quilted blanket, pointing to a backpack:
"How long did it take you?"
"Two minutes, forty three seconds," Emily says, checking her watch.
"Impressive. My bet was three minutes."
"Well, that run of yours yesterday must have worked some wonders," Emily says, sitting down with a small whimper. "At least I'm sore enough for it."
"There are different standards here in the big city," Paige says, unzipping the backpack. "But don't you worry. You'll be in top form in no time. Sandwich?"
"Thanks," Emily says, accepting the small plastic wrapped package.
Paige picks up an identical one and they spend a few moments in silence, enjoying their food while passing each other glances.
"So, tomorrow's Friday," Paige says.
"Yes, yes it is," Emily responds, smirking at the other woman's generic remark.
"So, that means you get off a little early right?" Paige asks, her eyes sparkling with surging hope. "Because my dad asked to have Jackson until Saturday and I was wondering if you would want to… go you know... You don't have to if you don't want to…"
"Are you bringing me as a goading meal to a Walker Raid?" Emily asks quirking an eyebrow at the other woman.
"No, why would I do that?" Paige asks.
"I was being ironic silly," Emily says laughing. "And yes I would love to."
"But I haven't told you where I was asking you to yet," Paige says confused.
"I don't care. I'll be with you and that's what matters," Emily says before planting a kiss on the other woman's lips. "Now how many more of those do I need to give you to put a stop to your nervous rambling?"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
That Friday night Emily senses an air of nervousness around Paige when she comes to the Barracks to pick her up. She is neither wearing her uniform nor the running gear this time, but instead donning slim fitting pants and a ripped denim west along with some combat boots.
"You look nice," Emily remarks as she walks up to the other woman, combing a braided lock behind her ear.
"It's a little more me than the Council Uniform. It feels like a costume that doesn't really fit. You're not so bad yourself," Paige throws right back at her. "But where did you get it? Your outfit I mean. I'm pretty sure that wasn't in the inventory for your cargo train."
"Hanna has been doing some needle work in her spare time. Turns out she is good at preparing more things than just gear. So where are you taking me?"
"Some place that I think you might like," Paige responds. "Come one, we have a bit of a walk ahead of us."
The place they end up in is the Night Light District, with Paige skimming the street up and down, as if she's looking for something.
"Here," she says, grabbing Emily's hand stealthily. "Next to the overpass. Hurry."
They both duck underneath a boulder and through a small passageway that she would never had seen if Paige had not been leading her towards it. After crossing a slim hallway and to a heavy wooden door, guarded by a stocky woman with a cropped haircut. Paige gives her a nod, making it clear to Emily that this is not the first time that she has been here, and then turns towards her as the woman pushes to door open and steps aside:
"Shall we?"
The room that they walk into somehow seems to be bigger than the space that is allocated for you; it's a darkly lit space, furnished with a couple of antique looking couches in the back and a bar smack in the middle of the room in front of what seems to be a dance floor. Cheerful music booms from a record player in the corner and is cast back from the corners of the room which seems to be designed to allow excellent flow of sound.
"How is it… what is this place?" Emily asks staring wide eyed around her.
"It used to be part of a church before the epidemic but it got buried in an explosion so it got built over with the railway. You can sometimes hear passing trains. Like now," Paige says, pausing momentarily while a thundering noise vibrates through the walls. "There are open air pockets so the place is still viable, but unless you know where to find this place you wouldn't know it's here. Wait here, I'll get us a drink."
While Paige is away Emily takes a further look around the room, noting that since she passed through the doors she has not seen a single man. And more surprisingly she notices that some of the women are getting a little more than friendly, dancing close up to each other and she can even swear that she catches a couple smooching on the couches in the back.
"Here you go," Paige says, swooping back next to Emily and handing her a tall glass of light brown liquid. "It's homebrewed cider." she adds when she sees Emily's puzzled look. "Sometimes it's sort of good, sometimes it's sort of bad. It's not as good as Mona's homebrew but it's something. And you're not wondering about the drink that I got you, are you?"
"Is this… Paige, where in the world are we?"
"I came across it when I was dating Shana," Paige admits. "She took me here a couple of times. It's not exactly the kind of place that you come across by chance."
"You seem to have done a lot of things with this Shana person…" Emily mutters, suddenly feeling very self conscious.
"Emily, believe it or not, the only thing that I could think about was that I would love to take you here, thus became the substitute problem.." she trails off awkwardly. "I know it's only been a couple of weeks Emily and we don't exactly have a problem free history, but I feel like what we have is the real deal. And I want that, no matter how difficult it might be. I don't want to be someone that ends up with…"
"...mushy squash," Emily adds.
"Now look who's finishing whose sentences," Paige says with a smirk, having regained some of her confidence. "And what in the world is mushy squash?"
"Not you," Emily says. "Now come on. I want to dance with you."
Their dance quickly turns into another one, and soon enough Paige is ordering them another round because their glasses are empty and they are both parched from their smustle. Emily can't help but to enjoy the place, despite knowing that Paige came here with Shana first, because despite all of that they seem to have entered some alternative universe. For the first time she can touch Paige without having to check to see if anybody is looking. They can hold each other while they dance, passing intense gazes, in a crowd of people while still being invisible. Emily finally musters heading for the bar herself and repays Paige by getting them the next round, going for an amber colored bottle which gets poured into small glasses and goes down like fire with a side of peach. The strong liquid seems to fill her with courage because as she hears the music settling into a slower rhythm she grabs the other woman's hands and draws her back to the dance floor before placing one of her hand on her hip and squeezing the other one reassuringly:
"I used to read these cheesy romance novels someone forgot at the Barracks back in Rosewood and I would fantasize about getting to dance like that," she admits.
"So, is this living up to your expectations?" Paige asks with a grin.
"Even better," Emily says, leaning up to the other woman's ear. "But this time I don't need to genderbend it in my head."
"Well, I can relate," Paige says, lowering her word to almost a whisper. "When I was a kid I used to dress up in my dad's clothes sometimes because I thought that maybe if I was a boy then people would be okay with me wanting to kiss girls."
Emily can't help but to chuckle, picturing Paige in oversized men's clothes:
"Well, I have some stories to tell of me as well. Would you like to hear something funny?"
"I would love to hear something funny."
"As crazy as it might sound, when I was trying to talk myself into being interested in boys, I would look for guys like you."
"Guys like me how?" Paige asks, dipping her head, obviously humbled by the comment.
"You know, guys that challenge me to do stuff that I wouldn't do by myself, like playing insanely competitive Pyramid or drag me to a secret hide-out club so they could kiss me in public."
"And to think that I haven't even taken advantage of that opportunity," Paige says, leaning in.
Their lips touch and Emily revels in the gentle enthusiasm of the other woman as the kiss quickly deepens. Before she knows it they have completely forgotten about the beat they were swaying to and are instead busy with smooching in a more intense manner than she would have ever thought that she would make out with anyone in public, let alone a woman. They momentarily break away from each other, catching their breath and realizing that they have become completely entangled in each other's arms.
"Take me home," Emily says.
"Oh," Paige says, the disappointment in her voice not going unnoticed. "If you insist."
"No, not like that," Emily exclaims, not being able to resist giggling at Paige's oblivious expression. "Take me to your home silly!"
The other woman doesn't need to be told twice as she promptly grabs Emily's hand and starts heading for the exit. Once they are outside they relax their grip a little and Paige waves down one of the three wheeled bicycle wagons.
"Where to?" the lanky looking driver asks them once they have hopped into the backseat.
"How far can you take us?" Paige asks.
"As long as you can pay me."
The rider ends up dropping them off in a remote neighbourhood and bids them goodnight after being handed a hefty sum along with a generous tip, before pedalling back into the night.
"You weren't lying when you said it was remote," Emily remarks as they walk to the end of the street, feeling that it is remote enough to put her arms around the other woman.
"That's the best part," Paige says, fishing the keys out of her pocket before opening a complicated set of locks. "At the center I always feel like I have a role to act, it's like a game of cloak and dagger where you never really know where you stand. Here I can just sort of unwind, work on my projects and just be myself you know."
"I know what you mean," Emily says accepting Paige's offer to step inside once the mechanism is taken care of. "I used to play Pyramid all the time with my dad on this court outside of the Barracks. When he would go on trips I would sneak in there to train so I could show him my new moves when he got back."
"You mean to tell me that you were an expert in Pyramid all along and left me to embarrass myself?" Paige asks half playful, half serious.
"You never asked," Emily answers, cupping the other woman's cheeks. "You just assumed that you were unbeatable."
"You devious little minx you," Paige says leaning into a kiss.
Emily responded vigorously, running her hands up the other woman's lapels. They slowly move back, stepping lightly, not unlike how they swayed on the dancefloor before. Their pace is somewhat different than it was the week before, with the two women taking their time taking off each other's garments instead of peeling them off like there was an angry horde on their heels. The moon shines through a crack in the curtains and she takes a moment to look at the woman before her who looks at her mesmerized while gently tracing lines across her collarbone. Her touches are exploring and tentative, boarding on timid, but as Emily's breath quickens, Paige's confidence seems to grow with it. There is such precision in the way that she is pressing against her and as Emily pushes back into her touch they settle into a soothing rhythm set to the cadence of their breaths. The intensity builds up and before she knows it she is grasping at Paige's shoulder as she feels her body tightening up before collapsing onto the mattress, held tightly by the auburn haired woman. After basking in the jubilation of the afterglow Emily breaks the silence:
"That was quite something. I assume you are as competitive in the bedroom department as you are in Pyramid?"
"I might be," Paige says, snickering a little before planting a kiss on the raven haired woman. "I hope I haven't exhausted you."
"Exhausted?" Emily says, quirking an eyebrow before grabbing the other woman before skillfully flipping her over, putting them in a reverse position than the one they had found themselves in on the court so many years ago. "We're just getting started."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Emily feels herself being tapped awaken by a rapping noise that has found its way into her dreamless sleep. Once she is sitting up she notices that it's barely dawn and that Paige is already out of bed and scrambling to get her clothes on.
"Don't get up," Paige says. "I'll take care of it, whatever it is."
"Do you think Jackson might be back early?" Emily asks rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"I don't think so," Paige says, girdling her belt. "They were going to go Pyramid training at the park so they shouldn't be done this early. It's probably just something that needs my signature or something."
She kisses Emily reassuringly before exiting the bedroom, leaving the raven haired woman to look around in the room. She pulls on a shirt and some pants before sliding out of the bed to look at a camera equipment that is lying on a bookshelf at the other end of the room.
"No way. I always wanted one of those," Emily says, picking the polaroid camera up before noticing a stack of photos lying underneath it.
Without giving it much thought, she absentmindedly starts flicking through them. She smiles at the sight of a photo of Paige and Jackson smiling, all muddied up from playing Pyramid. Another one has Paige and Toby, dressed in camouflage and striking silly poses and giving each other bunny ears. When sitting down on the bed she comes across a photo of someone she doesn't quite recognize; she has messy, blonde hair and is wearing an oversized shirt and is striking a relaxed pose on a lawn chair in what Emily realizes is the front porch of the house she is now staying in. She feels a burning sensation of jealousy spread in her torso as she realizes from the way that the woman smiles in a friendly way to the person taking the picture that this must have been Jo.
"I guess you really could have loved one another, huh?" Emily said to herself.
She hears a ruckus at the door and turns around to find Paige standing at the door.
"I'm sorry, I had no right to be snooping around," Emily says, quickly gathering the photos and putting them under the camera again.
"It's okay, it's fine," Paige says, before clearing her throat. "There is a situation, I think you should be brought up to speed on. They sent a messenger with this."
Emergency R.V. Loc: HQ 542A. Squad has been notified. Srgt. Cavanaugh is assembling Squad Calwood5.
"That's my squad," Emily says. "Why do they need our input?"
"I don't know," Paige says, crumpling the paper into her pocket. "But you should probably be there when they send out for you."
"Do we wait for a car to be sent or what do we do?"
"No time for that," Paige says grabbing a set of keys from a bowl on the nightstand. "Come on."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"So, you woke me up at the asscrack of dawn to tell me that you spent the night at Paige's house and that she dumped you off here on a motorcycle?" Hanna asks, leaning into a long stretch followed by a lengthy yawn.
"No. Well, yes, that did happen too," Emily admits, combing hair back from her face she recalls the breeze that ran through it as she held tight onto Paige while she skillfully navigated the smaller streets in order to get them back to the Barracks as quickly as possible. "She just got an emergency message. Our squad will be called in shortly so you need to wake Aria and Spencer."
"What for?" Hanna asks. "I thought we still had some R&R time left."
"We did. But something must have happened. So I'll go get our gear ready if you get Spence and Aria."
"Better change out of those clothes then," Hanna says, passing Emily a wink before walking towards the sleeping quarters. "I don't remember lending you the leather jacket though."
"That's because you didn't," Emily mumbles as she opens up her locker before taking off the padded bomber jacket and hanging it carefully up.
"I should give this back to you."
"Nah. Just give it back the next time I see you. It will keep you warm."
"You keep me warm," she says to herself before getting a change of clothes out and heading for the gear chest.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Once inside the headquarters Emily's squad gets briefed that suspicious activity has been spotted outside the city gates in an area where there has been no reports of human activity before.
"It's definitely human activity," Caleb reports. "I have been looking over the recorded sightings that the surveillance helicopter caught and the last time I checked a walker is not capable of controlling a vehicle, and an armed one at that."
"But why are we being sent for?" Spencer asks, and all though she feigns annoyance Emily can hear that she is glad to be back in the saddle.
"Because, it was one of the trucks from your cargo train," Toby responds and the two of them pass an intense glance before breaking the gaze in favour of staying professional.
"But what if it's a trap?" Aria says overlooking the reports of the sighting. "It sure does spell decoy."
"That's where Sergeant Cavanaugh and McCullers come in," Sergeant Major McCullers responds. "They will ghost you but stay far enough behind so that if this is an ambush we have your backs."
"So we're being set up like a large, dangling steak in front of these bastards," Spencer mumbles. "That's just great."
"Stop it," Hanna shoots back.
"Am I making you nervous?" Spencer whispers provocatively.
"No, you're making me hungry. Let's get this over with so we can get breakfast."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The girls are silent as their truck rumbles through the destroyed roads towards the co-ordinates where the activity was spotted. Emily stares at the screen, following the little dots on the screen before her, going over her last moments at the base in her mind.
"Be careful out there, okay?" Emily said as Paige zipped up her camouflage gear.
"I'm always careful," Paige answered, trying to still her voice as Emily cupped her cheek after having checked to make sure no unwanted personnel was around. Hanna was busying herself preparing their gear somewhere in the background but when she noticed the ambiance she gave the two women a polite smile and moved into the far corner of the room. "It's you who I'm worried about."
"I won't let anything happen this time," Emily said. "To me or my girls."
"That's good. Because you know, dad told me that Jackson has been talking non stop about you and he really needs someone to beat him at Pyramid that isn't me so he won't get too cocky."
Emily laughed at the comment:
"I'm glad I'm making such a huge impression."
"You've made impression on more than just him. Listen Emily, whatever this is we can figure that out later. Stay concentrated, stay focused. I don't want you to get into risky situations on my part."
"I should go," Emily said, hoisting her rucksack on her shoulder.
"I love you," Paige blurted out suddenly and both women were froze in place because of the sudden declaration. "I'm sorry. I don't know where that came from. I don't expect you to say it back. It just happened somehow. Don't think about it too much. Just stay safe."
"I will. Your love will keep me safe."
"Focus Fields," Emily tells herself, snapping back into concentration.
"Did you say something Em?" Aria asks, looking over, her arms at the ready.
"No, it's nothing," Emily says, looking in closer at the screen. "We're closing in."
"You guys," Spencer chimes in from the driver's seat. "I think they're heading our way. Hang on!"
The truck swerves and the girls grab a hold in order not to get knocked around by the sheer force.
"Move move move," Emily orders, directing the girls to exit the truck from the back in order to keep cover in case the driver or passengers of the truck might be armed.
The girls huddle up behind cover, taking quick glances at the other truck but not registering any movement.
"Exit the truck with your hands in the air!" Emily screams, signaling Aria and Hanna to silently move to the backside of the other truck in order to raid it while Spencer stays hidden in the driver's seat of the truck. "We are not going to harm you if you show co-operation! We are here to aid innocent survivors of the Walkers!"
She notices a small commotion in the driver seat and the door is pushed slightly ajar before someone collapses onto the ground with a heavy thud.
Emily hears Hanna yell out "Clear!" before she slowly approaches the place where the person is lying in a heap. She has her weapon ready, but at the moment she has problems seeing how the person that's lying like a sack of flour on the sandy ground could pose any sort of threat to them. She pokes their shoulder with the toe of her boot.
"Hey, can you speak?"
There is a small movement and Emily is jumps back, brandishing her piece. Hanna and Aria have gotten behind her after having checked the rest of the truck for any sign of life and she feels Spencer's gaze from the truck, carefully monitoring the situation. The person looks up with difficulty, inhaling with great difficulty before opening their mouth.
"Help me," Alison DiLaurentis says through cracked lips, blood trickling from a gash on her head before she collapses again, leaving the girls speechlessly gasping in a complete state of shock.