Paige sighed and brushed her hand across her face. "Oh, I don't know if I'm ready for three more of these," she said, her voice a higher pitch than usual. She turned and tilted her head at Jessie. "Am I going to cry?"
"I don't know," Jessie said, pushing herself off the cushions. "Maybe, but good crying." Jessie trotted over to Paige and wrapped her arms around the woman's leg. "Like when in court the judge said Graceland can keep me. You cried then, right?"
Paige reached down and lifted Jessie up onto her hip. She ran her hand through the little girl's hair. "Yeah, I was happy crying."
Jessie hesitated for a moment, but she then reached out and put her palm on Paige's cheek. "It's good to happy cry sometimes."
Paige could feel the lump in her throat growing. "You're making me want to happy cry right now," she said smiling. She put Jessie down and took the next note from her, opening it cautiously.
"I wasn't allowed to read this one," Jessie said shyly.
Paige read the note to herself and clasped her hand to her chest. A laugh escaped from Paige's mouth so loudly that Jessie jumped a little.
"What?" Jessie asked, pulling on the hem of Paige's shirt.
"Nope," Paige said shaking her head and folding up the note, "not for you."
"Do you know where to go?" Jessie asked.
"Yep. C'mon." Paige stuck out her hand and waited for Jessie to take hold before leading her back to the stairs.
They climbed up to the first floor and headed straight across the loft to Charlie's room. Paige knew the room was empty, but checked first anyway before walking through the space to the balcony.
Paige sat on the patio chair and reached into a potted plant, pulling out the stash of cigarettes that Charlie kept for especially stressful days. The box was empty though, and inside was another note that Paige took her time to read.
"There. She's there on the balcony." Johnny was standing on the beach, waiting for Paige to arrive at the scene of her third clue. He spoke into his watch so that the rest of his roommates could hear.
"She's standing back up," he said with an excited voice. "Mikey, I think we've got about ten more minutes..."
"Who are you waving at?" Paige asked, noticing Jessie peering off the balcony to the beach down below.
Jessie tucked her hand quickly back by her side. "Nobody," she said quickly. Paige's expression proved that she knew Jessie was lying.
"It was just BD," Jessie said, hiding her face from Paige.
Jessie jumped back into Charlie's room and led Paige away from the beach. Paige glanced at the beach one more time before following her inside, but she didn't recognize anyone down there, nor did she see BD.
They made it to the loft, and Jessie ran over to the couch in the nook next to the stairs.
"This one's going to be from Jakes, isn't it?" Paige asked. She sat next to Jessie and put her hand out for the fourth note, which Jessie shook excitedly in the air.
"I need to read it!" Paige said, laughing at her.
Jessie placed the note on Paige's palm and watched as she unfolded the paper, prepared to study it carefully.
It said: The only place where real work gets done around here.
"Real work?" Paige asked aloud. "Am I supposed to go outside?"
Jessie shot up off the couch and launched herself across Paige's lap, preventing the woman from being able to stand.
"No!" Jessie yelled, kicking her feet up. "Not outside. Not yet!"
"Not yet?"
"Ummm," Jessie hummed. She pushed herself off of Paige's lap and landed her feet back down on the floor.
"Ohhh. I think I know," Paige said smiling. "Am I supposed to go to the phone room?"
Jessie bit her bottom lip and shrugged her shoulders, fighting back against a growing smile.
"C'mon," Paige said. Jessie followed behind her as they made their way to the third floor. When Paige opened the door to the phone room, she saw balloons tied to the chair in the far corner. Paige went over to the desk and pulled the chair back - a video was loaded onto the computer monitor.
"Jessie?" Paige asked.
Jessie was standing frozen, barely outside of the doorway, her hands pushing against the molding of the door frame on either side of her. The little girl shook her head back and forth. "Only if someone is in trouble or I am told to go inside," she said aloud like a monotone recording.
"You are... correct," Paige said. She chuckled under her breath. "Such a mini Mike," she mumbled.
Paige clicked play on the video and smiled as a close-up of Jakes was revealed, sitting down by the pier at the beach. "I don't write love notes, P," he said. "But I've sat through hours of video footage for you in this chair and now you're going to watch a video for me... of me. You have pulled some absolutely ridiculous, badass stunts. I've watched you jump people three times your size, take down gunmen, plot tactical - but this year, P. This year I watched you fall in love. Twice."
Jakes took the sunglasses that had been hooked onto the front of his shirt and put them on properly, covering his eyes. "You're an amazing mom, Paige. I respect the shit out of you. But now..." Jakes stood up and spun the camera around to show the bonfire circle. "Now you need to come meet me down here. Ok?"
The video cut off and Paige looked over to Jessie, who was now seated in the doorway.
"Are you ready now?" Jessie asked, jumping up onto her feet. She bounced on her heels waiting for Paige to come back out of the phone room. "We have to do a lot of stairs!" Jessie announced.
Paige was laughing at her. "So the next note is by the bonfire?"
"Noooo," Jessie said. "You'll see!" They started to make their way down the flights of stairs.
"But I didn't get a note from Mike," Paige reminded her. "There's another note in your pocket... I can see it, Jessie."
Jessie slapped her hand to her pocket, afraid that Paige was going to try and take it. "You're wrong," Jessie said.
She ran ahead of Paige and led her down to the laundry room. She pushed open the door to the beach with all her might and felt Paige closing in right behind her.
Paige halted when she saw the scene on the beach.
Charlie, Briggs, Johnny and Jakes stood in a row, all wearing formal attire. Paige put her arm out to take hold of Jessie's hand, but the little girl was already running across the sand to her roommates.
Paige looked around the beach as she jogged over to them, searching for the person she knew had put all of this into play.
She couldn't spot him anywhere.
"You found us," Johnny said, kissing Paige on the cheek and pulling her into an embrace.
Paige was speechless. She went down the line and thanked each of them for what they had done, but they could tell she knew it wasn't quite over.
Briggs squatted and whispered something in Jessie's ear.
"Now I can do it!" Jessie said to Paige. She reached in her pocket and took out the note with the star on it. Jessie was laughing as Paige took it from her, but Briggs tapped the girl's shoulder and she jumped to attention.
Paige unfolded the note, written in Jessie's block handwriting.
"Turn around?" Paige read. She paused. "Turn around," she repeated quietly to herself.
She shut her eyes, took a deep breath, and then slowly pivoted.
Mike Warren, one knee in the sand, stared up at Paige with the biggest, bluest eyes he could muster.
Paige gasped and covered her mouth.
"Paige Arkin..."
Charlie, Johnny and Jakes were already running back up to Graceland. Briggs scooped Jessie into his arms. "But I wanna stay," she whined. Briggs didn't answer her and jogged away from Paige and Mike. "Mikey needs some privacy," Briggs told her. When they got far enough away, they turned back to watch their housemates.
"What is Mikey saying now?" Jessie asked.
"He's telling her how much he loves her," Johnny said.
"And how much he wants to spend the rest of his life with her," Jakes added.
"And how me and Paige and Mike are going to be a family together for real?" Jessie asked. She lay her head down on Briggs' shoulder, watching Paige and Mike in the distance.
Charlie laughed at her remark. "Something like that too," she said.
They saw Mike reach into his pocket. "He's doing it!" Jessie told them.
"Shhh," Briggs said to her softly, "we see it; we see it."
They held their breaths, silent as Paige stood up.
But when Paige leaped at Mike, threw her arms behind his neck, and lifted her feet off the ground as Mike spun them in circles? That's when they screamed.
The agents cheered as they ran over to Mike and Paige, who were now frozen in a kiss.
"Did we do it?!" Jessie yelled.
Mike broke away from Paige and stared into her eyes before reaching out for Jessie. He tossed her up in the air before pulling her into a hug. "Yeah, we did it, Jess. Best operation you've ever taken lead on."
"Are we married now?" she asked, looking over to Paige.
"Not quite yet," Paige said, wiping tears away from her eyes, incapable of removing the smile from her face.
"See? You did cry happy tears!" Jessie said.
Paige nodded and tried to regain control of her face.
"Let me see it!" Charlie said, reaching for Paige's hand. "Oh, Paige. The ring is stunning."
"Ok Jessie, say goodbye," Briggs said. The little girl complied and threw her arms around Mike in a hug.
"Bye?" Paige asked, confused.
Johnny laughed. "You think we want you in this house tonight? You have dinner reservations in two hours downtown and a suite at the Omni. You can thank us later."
"Thank you," Mike said with a smirk. He put Jessie down on the sand and then looked up to Paige. "I think we need to go pack a bag..." He reached out for Paige's hand to lead her up to the house. The rest of them couldn't help but stare, watching as they made their way back up to Graceland.
"So... when did you know?" Jakes asked his remaining housemates.
"That night at the- the warehouse. When we got P back," Briggs said. "Mikey was a new person."
"Nahhh," Charlie said. "Karaoke. He cheated on me with his eyes the minute he saw her singing up on that stage."
"Oh, I can win this game," Johnny said, putting his hands behind his head. "None of you share a wall with them..."
"Can we have a bonfire tonight?" Jessie asked them, trying to revert the conversation back to something she understood.
"Sure," Briggs said. "C'mon, let's go back inside." Jessie walked between Briggs and Charlie, holding hands with both of them as they all walked. The little girl eyed them, looking back and forth between the agents.
"Briggs?" Jessie asked.
"What?"
"When are you going to make a scavenger hunt for Charlie?"
Briggs, Charlie, Johnny and Jakes froze.
"Me and Briggs aren't going to-" Charlie said, stopping herself.
"What about me?" Jessie asked. "Will I have a scavenger hunt and a ring on the beach?"
"No," Briggs and Johnny said curtly.
Jakes raised his eyebrows at her. "We'll talk about it later... like when you're 50."
Johnny and Jakes chased Jessie up the stairs to the main floor of Graceland, but Briggs stopped Charlie from following them.
"Hey," he said, taking hold of her wrist.
"What?"
"This." Briggs brought Charlie toward him, closed his eyes, and kissed her.
They held onto each other in the silence.
"You think the boys can babysit for the night?" Charlie whispered to him.
"Yes. Yes, I do."
