Things start to settle down, allowing Paige and Hanna to spend some time together.
A/N: OK, so the voicemail trick was indeed a bit mean. ;) I'll try to make it up to you all...
Paige spent the whole of the rest of the week with a feeling she was supposed to be doing something. There was nothing else to be done, she knew that, but she still couldn't shake it.
The police spoke to her, but they didn't tell her anything that Emily hadn't. The weird part was telling her parents.
"Ezra had some video footage of me while I was over at Emily's," she had said.
Her father looked at her, confused for a moment.
"What do you mean?" he asked, but Paige's mother just nudged him with her elbow, mercifully cutting the conversation short.
Paige didn't like having to keep it a secret, but neither did she want to be discussing the content of what Ezra had taped.
Mostly, though, it was a struggle keeping her father from marching over to the prison and demanding they execute Fitz immediately. All of the parents were probably struggling with this. A teacher had secretly videoed their children in their own houses, their own bedrooms. There was a look of helplessness on her parent's faces, like they had failed to protect her. They hadn't, but she guessed it was hard for parents to accept that there were people like this in the world, and that their own children might be vulnerable.
They all waited for news on the case, but little came. The police just said they needed time to inspect, classify and record all the evidence. This made Paige shudder. Behind the official language, she knew that this meant that someone had to watch the footage, all of it, to catalog Fitz's crimes.
So after all of the revelations of the last few days, nothing much happened for a while.
At school things were also strangely uneventful. She wasn't avoiding Emily and her friends anymore, but she wasn't hanging out with them either. In any case, Aria was still away, recovering from the shock of what had happened to her, and no one knew where Alison was.
So Paige had her own life and her own friends, which now included Hanna. While she sometimes saw Hanna talking with Spencer or Emily, in class Hanna sat with Paige, and at lunchtime it was now the five of them, Paige, Caitlin, Brian, Chelsea and Hanna.
Paige had half expected to not see Hanna as much, but even the first day after the tentative reconciliation with Spencer and Emily, Hanna had made a beeline for Paige in the cafeteria.
"Hey guys!" she announced cheerily as she sat down, placing her lunch, a suspicious looking stew, on the table in front of her.
"Hanna! How you doing?" Caitlin asked.
"Not too good," Hanna replied. "There are no chocolate-chip cookies left. It's lucky I'm hungry because I'm going to have to eat this with just that mousse for desert, and that tastes more like foam than chocolate."
"You're an inspiration to all of us," Brian observed.
"I know," Hanna said with a proud look on her face.
Hanna turned to Paige and smiled. Paige's heart melted at the sight. It was hard doing this with other people around. Acting normal took so much effort sometimes, when all she wanted to do was just kiss this beautiful girl in front of her.
She had to tell her soon. She just needed the right moment.
But in the meantime they were becoming good friends, and that meant a lot to Paige. Hanna would visit Paige after school, or invite Paige around to her house. Some nights they studied together, though Hanna would need some reminding that they were supposed to be studying.
That weekend Hanna insisted on taking Paige shopping, though her fashion suggestions weren't really in Paige's style. They went back to Hanna's house afterwards, where Hanna's mom didn't seem surprised to see Paige and invited her to stay for dinner. Somehow the conversation got on to Hanna's childhood, and Paige ended spending most of the evening being shown through old photo albums, accompanied by stories of adorable but somewhat mischievous exploits.
And as their friendship grew, Hanna started to become more… Paige could only call it affectionate. She would hold on to Paige as they talked, or touch her, or play with her hair.
For a little while Paige told herself she was just imagining it, but soon it was hard to deny. Paige dared to hope now.
It was so dark Hanna could barely see. There were just a few lights to show the path, which were barely enough. Still, Hanna did her best to follow the leader, who was Brian at this stage, with Paige and Caitlin behind him, then Hanna, then Chelsea bringing up the rear.
This was scary. They knew someone was after them, but they didn't know where they were.
They came up to a junction. They needed to get across, but there was no cover for the next few yards.
Brian looked around carefully, then signaled for them all to cross.
They were halfway there when they came under attack. Their opponents were on the higher path, guns propped over the side barrier, firing at will.
The others all headed for cover, but Hanna decided to fire back. Except her stupid phaser wasn't working. What was wrong with it?
"You have to put your hand under the muzzle!" Chelsea called.
Oh yeah, that was right. How did it work again?
As she puzzled over the intricacies of her weapon, she realized she'd been hit. Oh well, she just had to wait now.
"Get down, they can still shoot you," Chelsea instructed her.
"I've already been hit," Hanna pointed out.
"But they can still get points for hitting you again," Chelsea reminded her.
"Oops," Hanna said, ducking down behind the wall.
Hanna had to admit this laser tag things was kind of fun, but it seemed to involve getting shot a lot, and therefore being deactivated for extended periods of time. Being a walking target, in other words.
As Hanna cowered behind her cover, she thought how nice it had been of the others to invite her along. They did this most weeks, and had become quite good at it. This made Hanna the newbie who was basically losing it for them, but they didn't seem to mind.
Paige's friends were so nice. But then, of course they were.
On the other side of the junction, Paige and Brian had their phasers propped over the wall, firing back at the other team. Caitlin was peeking around the side of the barrier, targeting anyone who tried to enter the junction.
Hanna took a moment to appreciate Paige at full stretch. The girl was tall already, but reaching up like that, those gorgeous arms up high, her muscles still on show in the half dark… like, damn. Even as Hanna admired the view Paige turned a little, showing off her impressive shoulders, her breasts silhouetted by the neon light.
"Hanna!" Chelsea said, tapping on her shoulder. Caitlin was busily waving them over. She may have been doing this for a while.
It didn't really matter anyway, as their equipment started making weird noises at that point and telling them that the game was over.
The lights came on and everyone relaxed. They all looked a little silly in these outfits, but that was part of the fun.
"How did we go?" Hanna asked.
"OK," Paige replied unconvincingly.
Hanna could see a slight smirk on Caitlin's face as she looked at Hanna. What?
"It's mini-muffin time!" Chelsea announced.
Hanna looked from face to face. No one seemed surprised by that exclamation, so this was obviously some sort of ritual of theirs. She followed them all to drop off their equipment. After that it was back out to the cafe.
And there they were. The mini-muffins.
Chelsea practically had her face pressed against the glass at the counter, and soon Hanna joined her. There were choc-chip, banana and honey, apple and cinnamon, and about ten different kinds of berries.
"Which are the good ones?" Hanna asked.
"They all are," Chelsea replied.
Soon they were all ordering coffees and mini-muffins.
"I'll have a banana and honey, a raspberry, and a cranberry oat, please," Hanna said.
She got that feeling, like everyone was sort of laughing, except they weren't.
"Look, they're tiny!" she protested.
"Go for it," Chelsea reassured her.
They all sat down at one of the tables. Hanna was the only one with three mini-muffins, but Chelsea had two.
Hanna tried the first one.
"They're good, aren't they?" Chelsea said.
"Mmhmm," Hanna agreed, nodding as her mouth was still full. They were fantastic.
"I think this is half the reason Chels comes here," Brian said.
"Not all of us are cut out to be warriors," Caitlin countered.
"She's a woman of simple pleasures," Brian noted.
Chelsea just screwed her face up a little at him and kept chomping away happily.
"Why are they so small, though?" Hanna asked.
"It's just a thing, I guess," Paige replied.
"I could eat one of these in a single mouthful," Hanna declared.
"OK then," Brian responded. "Let's see you."
"OK," Hanna said, taking up the challenge.
Brian picked up his mini-muffin. Hanna picked up one of hers, as did Chelsea.
"Um, guys…" Paige said, but it was too late.
The three of them each shoved their mini-muffin into their mouth.
Hanna soon realized she may have underestimated the challenge. While she could fit it in her mouth, this left little room for chewing. She moved her jaw up and down a little, but to no avail. She could see the other two were having similar difficulties.
Her other problem was trying not to laugh. The three of them were looking at each other while they struggled to make any progress. Their bodies convulsing with laughter, muffled only by the baked goods plugging their mouths.
Caitlin, meanwhile, had her phone out and was busy taking photos.
Paige was just nervously looking around to see if anyone else was watching.
"Did I embarrass you?" Hanna asked.
"No, no," Paige reassured her. "You saw the rest of them, they had as much fun as you did."
It was evening and the mini-muffin challenge was long over. They were back at Paige's now, quietly sitting together on the couch in the living room.
"You're friends are so cool," Hanna said.
"They like you, too," Paige said. "You fit in pretty well."
Hanna started laughing again, for no apparent reason.
"I'm sorry," she said in between guffaws. "I'm just… remembering you trying to explain it to the guy who worked there."
Hanna put on a concerned voice. "Are your friends alright?"
Paige had been a little embarrassed, but she didn't want to admit it. But watching Hanna now, cackling away with delight, was just infectious, and soon Paige was joining in the laughter too.
As they laughed, Hanna grabbed Paige's arm, and hugged it like it was a soft toy.
Paige went quiet now, and it didn't take Hanna long to notice.
"What's up?" Hanna asked.
Paige was getting nervous.
"Nothing," Paige assured her.
"No way, I can read you like a book, McCullers," Hanna insisted. "You're stressing over something. Come on, tell me."
"I don't know…" Paige began, but trailed off.
"Don't know what?" Hanna asked.
Paige paused. Could she tell her? For an instant she pictured Hanna pulling away, recoiling at what Paige had said. She felt the pain of losing a friend, one who had come to her when they both needed each other. But Paige knew these pictures in her head weren't real. The came to her often, but she knew now to fight them.
"I don't know if I'm misreading this," Paige answered. It was a relief just to say those words. She wanted to say more, though. Her heart was racing, but she kept going. "I don't know if telling you any more will spoil our friendship, and I really don't want to do that. This has been the best thing to happen to me in a long time. And I don't know… if you feel for me… they way I feel for you."
Hanna smiled at her, both kindness and playfulness in her eyes.
"Does this answer your question?" Hanna said, then leaned in closer to Paige, until their lips were nearly touching.
Paige's heart was racing, and at that moment she realized how much she had wanted this to happen, and how long she had waited. She could barely believe it even now.
Hanna gave her a quick grin, then the distance between them was gone.
They kissed. Slowly and gently.
Paige closed her eyes and all she knew was the feeling of Hanna's lips against her own.
