Title: Coffee and Calypso

Author: LadyBladesong

Summary: Paige needs something.

Feedback: Please:)

Pressed

Rachel looked up from her drafting table as she heard the door open. She thanked her luck when it was Paige and not some other crazy woman. She went back to work.

"You're lucky I hadn't changed my lock," she said without looking back up. "I try to do that between women."

"Sorry."

Rachel wasn't sure if she heard that right.

"Do you want a drink or something?" Rachel asked as she finished a sketch, finally putting her mind away from work and looking at Paige, who at 9 o'clock looked pretty tired for someone who usually stayed up working till the wee hours.

"Water would be great hon, thanks." Rachel nodded, and went to her kitchenette to get two glasses of water. When she came back, she found Paige looking at her sketches. "What are these?"

"Well Paige," Rachel smiled. "You may very well be my sexiest client, but you're definitely not my only client." Paige bit her lower lip and nodded.

"They're amazing." Rachel grinned, genuinely pleased, but still wondering what was going on.

"Well, I would hope so." Rachel simply sat there, watching Paige very delicately look through the sketches.

"Rachel, do you, or did you, love me?" Rachel choked on her water.

"Paige, are you okay? You come into my apartment uninvited, but instead of yelling at me, assaulting me, or trying to get me into bed with you, you're quiet, polite, acknowledging the existence of my talent, AND, for the first time ever, mind you, you say the l-word. Are you okay? Is this something I should be concerned about?"

"Just...answer, please?" Rachel was taken aback by this side of Paige, one she had never seen before.

"No." Rachel smiled sadly. "I could have, I think, once. Before all that trouble with Domi, before you stabbed me in the back, twice, before Jason, before all the drama. Yeah. I could have loved you. You were fun, sexy, smart. There's not much to dislike about you Paige, besides the fact that you don't LET people love you. You make it so damn hard for us to."

Paige remembered all too clearly, laughing bitterly. "I'm a bitch."

"Dear, you are the QUEEN bitch." Rachel reached out, caressing Paige's face, which she realized was close to tears. "But I'm still here."

"But why?"

"Paige. Honey. You need to get yourself together," Rachel dragged Paige into the bedroom, keeping herself from laughing at the blonde's protests. "Now, I realize this may be new to you, but I've got an idea. Get out of the bitch suit, and stay here with me. Think, talk if you want, I promise I'll try to listen. Try to figure out what got you here. And then," Rachel kissed Paige's nose. "You can sleep. And rest. And go from there. No pressure. No worries. No romantic antics...unless that's what you want of course." Rachel finished jokingly.

Paige hugged Rachel tightly, an embrace neither of the women were used to.

Reassured, Paige undressed unhurriedly, burying herself in the large bed (a bed she had incidentally bought for Rachel; it was the most luxurious object in the apartment). Rachel soon followed, finding Paige's hand and holding on.

Reminding herself to breathe, Paige remembered.


"What the fuck do you think I am Paige?" Rachel started hurriedly grabbing her things. "If you want me, fine, want me, but don't play me like this." Rachel left in a huff, shoving past the handsome man with roses in his hand.

---

"Were you ever a model yourself Miss Michalchuck?" He was handsome, rugged, but still beautiful.

"Never."

---

"Liar! You lying, manipulative, toxic..." Rachel couldn't finish as Paige kissed her fiercely, dragging the hurt and angry girl deeper into her apartment.

"I never lied to you hon." The soothing caress was shaken off. "I never promised anything." The kiss wasn't. "I tried." An errant breath. A deliberate nibble. "Forgive me?"

---

"This is unacceptable," Paige said coldly. "Get out."

"Unacceptable? Paige, this isn't business ; this is about us, you know, the relationship we sort of maybe have?"

"I believe I said get out. Don't make me call security."

"Whatever happened to caring?"

---

"Care? Chuckles, let me spell this out for you. I don't like you. Katherine thinks you're useful, and I'll have to admit, she might just be right. But you, are NOT the sort of person I want anywhere near my little sister. If you cared one ounce about her, you'd cut it off now before it got ugly." Before Paige could reply, Dominique changed tactics. "You either end it, or not only will I tell Rachel about your little trysts with our male models, but I'll PERSONALLY see to it that Katherine finds out about EVERY little dirty trick you pulled to get here."

"You don't have anything on me, Dominique." Paige sneered.

"No? You are so wrong honey, because I, have everything."

---

"Everything?" He smiled at her incredulous, but intrigued. "What kind of fashion is that?"

"The kind I help you wear." Paige replied with a smirk, helping him with that last button. "It's a long-lasting sort of thing."

---

Katherine shook Paige's hand, satisfied. "You'll never be happier you left dabenshire. I think you'll find your work at Calypso much more up your alley Ms. Michalchuck."

---

"Michalchuck! How stupid could you be, you dumb cow!" Paige wondered if the sacrifice had been worth it.

---

"It was a LIE Paige! Alex doesn't have any family in Ajax!"

"So she lied. She's Alex. I'm sure she's fine." Paige said after a moment of shock she didn't let touch her. "Now get out of this house before I call the police."

"The hell?!? I can't BELIEVE you." Jay started pacing back and forth, frustrated. "She LOVED you, though only God knows why. She lost everything! You took her in, and she said everything was fine, and then two weeks later she started calling me up more and more. She was so lost...now granted I was a mess too at the time, what with Mel...that was all my fault...and then you kick her out? I hadn't even heard from her after that one time we lit up here. And now she's missing and you don't even care?!?"

"Of course I care!" Paige screamed at him. "But what am I supposed to do? What was I supposed to do? She was going to ruin everything! She didn't care about getting her life together."

"So you just cut her off like dead weight? She was trying! But you didn't even care. Even that goddamn fag friend of yours made things worse. And I thought he and Alex were FRIENDS. Hell, apparently I was stupid enough to believe when she said you loved her and you two were happy, so maybe that was a lie too."

Paige looked away from the angry man. "Jay. Get out. Now."

Jay glared at her, silently daring her to look at him. "Fine. You're cold Michalchuck. I hope you burn in hell."

After Jay left, Paige collapsed on the ground and started to cry.

---

Crying herself to sleep in an empty bed.

---

"Awfully fond of the bed, aren't you Alex?" Paige teased.

"Well, it is where I usually see you."

---

"You ever going to tell her that you love her?"

Rachel watched Paige fall into a restless slumber. "You women should come with warning labels, I swear..." she muttered, getting up to find a different blanket. "Blanket hog."