"Paige! I'm so glad you could make it!" Aria, despite the heels that she was wearing, still needed to get up on her tiptoes to give Paige a hug. "I'm a hugger," she explained as they parted. Paige smiled politely. "And you must be Wayne," Aria added, running her fingers through his hair. Wayne shuddered slightly at the unexpected contact. Aria leaned in and whispered to Paige, "I'm sorry; I should've said something, but I think some of the images might be a little intense for someone Wayne's age."

"Oh..." Paige, flustered, looked around for something to do, as if some sort of child's valet would magically pop up, where she could check Wayne in for babysitting.

Out of the blue, Hanna swooped in.

"That's why I'm here," she said, scooping Wayne up in her arms. "You look like the kind of guy who would enjoy a banana split that's the size of your head!"

Wayne's eyes went wide as he tried to imagine such a thing. He looked at Paige for permission. "Hanna," she said sadly, "I couldn't ask..."

"Don't worry about it," Hanna said. "I've already seen Aria's exhibit."

Paige really did want to see Aria's exhibit. And the pleading look of anticipation in Wayne's eyes sealed the deal. She didn't want to crush his hopes. Reaching for her purse, she said, "Well, at least let me give you some cash."

"I've got it covered!" Hanna nodded her chin towards a corner by the restrooms, where Emily was suddenly pretending to be looking for something in her purse rather than staring at the four of them. "I'll get it from Emily. She owes me." As she headed towards the door, she added, under her breath, "Big time!" Emily would have had fun with Paige and Wayne, but if she were ever going to make any progress with Paige, she would need to have some one-on-one time with her.

"Listen," Aria said, landing her hand on Paige's shoulder, "I really want to thank you for letting me use your address."

"Oh," Paige said dismissively, "It was no big deal. Honestly."

She was lying. Trevor was still living in the house, and the last thing Paige wanted was to have to hold a conversation with him. She knuckled down and did it, though. After all, Spencer had been a big help to her, and she wanted to pay it forward. Besides, it seemed so important to Emily, when Emily asked her. Talking to Trevor wasn't the last thing that Paige wanted to do. Disappointing Emily was.

And, speaking of Emily...

When Paige felt a hand on her back, she didn't need to turn around to figure out who it was. She knew that it was Emily even before she felt the hand on her back. She would have known that scent anywhere.

Paige's heart started beating faster. Part of the reason that she had brought Wayne with her - other than the fact that she just loved the kid and didn't like doing things without him - was so that he could serve as a buffer, to keep her from doing something stupid. Paige had no experience in this kind of thing; she had always been the one being pursued, never the pursuer. It had been the story of her life ever since boys her age started noticing girls. She had never practiced wooing someone or courting, and she was afraid that she would make an absolute mess of it. Paige wasn't the sort of person who liked to do anything without being over-prepared. That's how accidents happened. She was certain that, if she tried to make a move on Emily, she would do something too obvious or over the top and scare her away. Wayne had been sort of her insurance policy, to keep a check on her behavior.

"Paige," Emily said, giving her back a slight rub. It was the voice of an angel.

"Hi," Paige said eagerly, squashing all her nerves. Emily gave her a quick hug before moving to hug Aria.

"I was just thanking Paige for coming through for me and getting me this space," Aria gushed.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Emily replied, taking a look around. She gave Paige a smile and gave her arm a squeeze.

Paige shrugged her shoulders. "I just let her use my address. It's not as if I paid for space or anything."

"Well, I couldn't have gotten it without you," Aria said sincerely. Quickly switching gears, she added, "Listen, I'd love to give you guys the guided tour, but I see some people whom I have to schmooze with. Can I catch up with you on the other side?"

"Oh, sure!" Emily said eagerly. "We'll just wander around," she added with a pleasant shrug.

Paige deflated, her last hope of having a buffer between her and Emily gone off to schmooze.

Emily took Paige's arm and set off, looking at the photos and making comments on them. Paige was silent, for the most part, unable to get over her nervousness. It made for an awkward night.

"Are you okay?" Emily asked, more than once. It had been a while since things had been like that with Paige, the two of them finding themselves with nothing to say. Paige nodded her head, trying desperately to come up with an explanation other than that she was infatuated with Emily and too nervous to speak. "Are you thinking about Wayne?" Paige gave a slight, non-committal shrug. "Hanna's really good with kids," Emily assured her. "She watches Anna all the time."

"Yeah, I..." Paige cleared her throat. "I'm sure she is."

Paige didn't seem to get any calmer, so Emily found herself unconsciously rushing them through the exhibit, trying to get through it so that Paige could get back to Wayne and feel at ease again. Emily understood Paige's discomfort: She didn't really know Hanna, and Hanna could be a bit full-on.

Emily wasn't upset. But she was disappointed.

Paige was disappointed, too. There she was, walking through a photography exhibit with someone she had feelings for, and she was so busy worrying about messing everything up that she was... well, messing everything up. It was a golden opportunity - a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing, and she was letting it slip through her fingers.

"So, do you like Ms. Emily?"

"Uh huh." Wayne nodded, never looking up from his banana split which, as Hanna had promised, was a big as his head. "She's pretty," he crooned.

Hanna gasped in mock excitement, as if she were learning this about Emily for the first time. "She is, isn't she?" she said, in her enthusiastic, preschool-teacher-ish voice.

Wayne nodded again. "That's what Mommy says." A bite or two later, he added, "And Mommy says she smells so good."

"Mommy said that?" Hanna was flashing a wry smile, not that Wayne noticed. But the smile wasn't for him anyway. She flipped the hair out of her face coquettishly and batted her eyes. "And does Mommy say that I'm pretty, too?"

Wayne shook his head. "No," he said unemotionally, "she says you're loud."

"Well, Mommy's not very tactful, is she?" Wayne might have asked what tactful meant, had he not been so engrossed in his ice cream. Instead, he just shrugged his little shoulders. Hanna squeezed his wrist. "Well," she conceded, lingering on the word "I guess Mommy has a point."

"Uh huh," Wayne said flatly.

Hanna leaned across the table, with her elbows flat against it. "Do you know what Ms. Emily's daddy's name is?"

"Uh uh," Wayne said. He paused from his ice cream and looked up at Hanna. "Mr. Fields?"

Hanna laughed lightly. "You're a pretty bright little man aren't you?" Wayne kind of smiled before putting his spoon back to work. "Well, yes," Hanna told him, "His name is Mr. Fields, but his first name is Wayne."

"It is?" Hanna nodded. "Like me!"

"You're right!" Hanna said, gasping with wide-eyed wonder. She put up her hand, and Wayne gave her a high five. "And do you want to know a secret?" Wayne, intrigued, stopped eating and nodded his head, with his mouth hanging open. Hanna gestured with her finger for him to come closer, and he leaned in. "That's why you'll always be special to Ms. Emily," she whispered. "Because you and her daddy have the same name." Wayne smiled in delight. "Don't you ever forget that, okay?"

Hanna knew that Paige and Emily were going to end up together. She decided to get a head start on letting Wayne know that Emily would love him as much as she loved Anna.

While Wayne was still leaning across the table, Hanna tickled him on his neck and he laughed, sending his spoon flying. He looked down and panicked when he saw a big chocolate stain on his shirt.

"Hey - that's okay," Hanna assured him. "Here," she said, extending her arm. "You tickle me!" Wayne reached out and clumsily tickled her wrist. She mimicked him perfectly, laughing and tossing her spoon, then looking down with a gasp. "Now, I've got chocolate on my shirt, too!"

Wayne's eyes watched as Hanna went to get some napkins and a couple of clean spoons. He liked Auntie Hanna, he decided. She was fun.

As the night wore on, and Paige remained mostly silent, Emily found herself falling harder and harder for her. She couldn't help but admire her. What kind of woman loves her kid that much, that she would take him to an art gallery in Philadelphia, and then spend the whole night worrying about him?

Emily decided that she should stop worrying about trying to get Paige to like her and just enjoy the friendship that they were building. Whatever else was going to happen would have to happen in its own time.

"Wayne's a great kid, isn't he?"

Paige's eyes lit up. "He really is. I don't know what I did to deserve a kid like that."

"I know, right?"

"Oh, yeah..." Paige suddenly remembered that she wasn't the only one who had a great kid. "Yeah, Anna's great, too... I mean..." Paige was trying to find a way to say it so that it didn't sound like the obligatory, "you say something nice about my kid, so I have to say something nice about your kid" thing. "Anna's just so full of love."

Emily smiled. "Thanks."

"No, I mean it," Paige said earnestly. "When I think back to Wayne's first days in Rosewood... Well, he was really lucky to have someone as kind as Anna to befriend him."

Emily sighed. "It must've been such a confusing time for him."

Paige nodded. "Sometimes, I just feel so bad for him. I mean, he didn't deserve any of this crap." Paige shook her head, looking very emotional. "Children don't have any choice about the world they're brought into, and very little control over what goes on around them." Paige, once again, was starting to feel bad for talking only about herself. "Well, I guess... I mean, you've been doing this on your own for five years..."

"Not really on my own, though, you know? I mean, I don't think I ever would have been able to think about raising a child on my own if I didn't have a great support system to fall back on." Emily tightened her lips. "At least not in the early days. I know - I've always known - that the girls are going to start families of their own, sooner or later, but, now we're at the point where Anna's older, so it's not quite as scary to think about doing it on my own. "

"Well, you'll never be totally on your own."

"Oh, I know," Emily said confidently, though she missed Paige's point. "Even when they start their own families, I know they'll be willing to pitch in."

"And I'm sure you'll be pitching in to help them, too."

"Yeah," Emily said with a smile.

Paige took a deep breath. "And, you know, I can... I'll... I mean, if you need anything, I - Wayne and I..."

Emily stopped in her tracks and touched Paige's cheek. She had never touched her so intimately before, but Paige was just so sweet. And so adorably flustered. Emily really wanted to kiss that cheek - or those lips - but something held her back. It wasn't fear so much as boundaries.

It occurred to Paige that she and Emily were talking fluently; back in their comfort zone. That realization made her start to relax, no longer afraid that she was going to say or do something inappropriate or too eager, and push Emily away.

"It's too bad the kids couldn't come to this," Emily mused.

"Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking," Paige said, dipping her head. "Obviously, it's not the kind of thing you would take a kid to."

"I don't know about obvious," Emily said. "I only knew because I'd seen some of the photographs that Aria was using." Paige smiled weakly. Emily got the feeling that she was still mentally beating herself up for that minor faux-pas. "We should go to the Please Touch Museum sometime," she offered, trying to get Paige's mind on something else. "Have you ever been?"

Paige laughed. Raising a child in Philly, of course she'd been to the Please Touch Museum. "Oh, yeah!" she said with a scoff. "Wayne loves that place. We've got a membership!" Paige leaned in, as if she were telling Emily a secret. "I could get you in for free!"

Emily played along. "Oh, wow! Well, that ices it! Let's go sometime! The four of us!"

"Okay," Paige said, with a mock frown, "if you insist on taking the kids..."

"Well," Emily said slowly and with a pout, "it looks as if that's the the last of them."

Paige inhaled as if she were about to say something, but she shook her head.

"What?"

"I just..." Paige took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Well, would you mind if we went back through that first room? I kind of rushed us through it, and one of the pictures was really intriguing. The one with the..." Paige gestured with her fingers. She didn't know how to describe it. Well, actually, she didn't even remember any of the pictures. She just wanted a little more time with Emily before they called it a night.

"Yeah, sure," Emily said eagerly, jumping in in the middle of Paige's description, to let her off the hook. "But good luck getting Wayne to sleep tonight, after Hanna finishes pumping him full of ice cream and sugar!"

"Oh, please," Paige said, waving Emily off. "He'll be passed out in a food coma before we hit 95! But I will probably need to get him on the treadmill in the morning!"

"Yeah, right," Emily said, rolling her eyes. "With his five-year-old's metabolism?"

Paige smacked herself on the forehead. "What was I thinking? Man, if I could bottle that metabolism, I'd be a millionaire!"

Paige looked in the rearview mirror to check on Wayne as she pulled onto the interstate. Just as she had predicted, he was already fast asleep. She smiled to herself. He was a good kid. And it had been a pretty good night.

A/N - Thanks to jhas for suggesting a scene in the art gallery.. Not quite what you had in mind (all of the girls together, with the kids), but we'll get there eventually...

Thanks for reading!