Weddings can be a stressful experience. Emily had always heard that, but she was sure that, with enough planning and foresight, if they took their time and kept things manageable, she and Paige would be able to avoid that trap and actually enjoy the experience (rather than enduring it to get to the wedding). But there were a lot more wildcards than they anticipated.

There was friction between Emily's mom and her best friend. Even though it was Emily's wedding, and even though Emily had explicitly drawn boundary lines around their areas of influence, they kept having border skirmishes, each seeking to expand her zone of influence.

Emily was grateful that her wedding meant so much to Pam and Hanna, but a part of her also envied Paige, who had no such conflicts. No one was competing to control Paige's end of the preparations. Her friends from high school and college had scattered to various other states, her colleagues at Rosewood High were older, at a stage in their lives when all of the wedding and shower stuff was no longer as exciting as it would have seemed to them about ten years earlier, and her mom had adopted a very hands-off approach to the wedding, using the distance between Scranton and Rosewood as an excuse. The irony wasn't lost on Paige: Her mother, who had sought to control and shape her entire life when she was growing up, had become very laissez-faire, at the point in her life when Paige actually needed her.

This seemed to Paige and Emily like a brilliant opportunity to come up with a compromise: One side had too much help, and the other didn't have enough. They tried to recruit first Hanna, and then Pam to step back from Emily's side of the preparations just a bit and help out with Paige's. That didn't fly with either of them. They were both willing to pitch in and help out with Paige's responsibilities, but not to release their hold on Emily's. Pam had been waiting all of her life (well, all of Emily's life, at least) to plan this wedding, and, apparently, so had Hanna.

Rather than get Emily upset and risk having her throw both of them off of the job, Pam and Hanna worked things out among themselves, agreeing in writing to a strict division of responsibilities. Emily never actually saw the contract, but she swore that it was written in blood. Hanna had charge of the wedding and bridesmaids' dresses, the bachelorette party, and the rehearsal dinner. Pam got the wedding itself and the reception. Of course, all three of them (and, to a lesser extent, Paige) worked on the whole wedding together, but it helped relieve a lot of stress to give them specific jobs. Whenever a conflict threatened to arise, the offended party would reference the contract, and the other would back down.

Almost as important as the jobs themselves were the job titles. Hanna insisted on the title, "Executive Bride's Assistant slash Fashion and Entertainment Coordinator." Pam was perfectly content simply to be "Wedding Coordinator (and Mother of the Bride)".

Eventually, as the wedding drew nearer, the stress caught up with Emily and Paige as well, despite how much as they had tried to avoid it by taking breaks and carving out some time just for the two of them when things started to get heavy. When it comes down to it, as much as weddings are a celebration of love, they're also a big, expensive undertaking, and there are a million decisions to be made. It was the biggest project by far that Paige and Emily had ever worked on together, and it brought to the surface some things that they hadn't noticed about each other, or hadn't paid much attention to before.

Emily had seen Paige take charge and be a leader, in her capacity as coach of the Scranton High swim team, and, more recently, as the athletic coordinator and, technically, her boss. But she hadn't seen that side of Paige in their personal relationship. Paige usually deferred to Emily's judgment, or found a way to compromise when push came to shove. During the wedding planning, for the first time, Paige started to shove back when they disagreed. It was an adjustment; another step in the maturing process of their relationship. And it was an important step to cross. Sooner or later, in any relationship, the love goggles come off, and the couple has to deal with the real world. If love is going to last, it has to outlast the challenges of reality.

The week before the wedding, push came to shove in an unexpected and inconvenient place. Emily and the band were performing at The Hungry Owl, and her friends and family were there for a sort of pre-wedding celebration. One of owners loved the band (and Emily in particular), and was delighted to let them use her bar to celebrate there.

Things between Paige and Emily started to boil over right before the performance. Emily usually liked to be alone before she went on stage. Even after a couple of years of performing in front of crowds, she was still on-edge right before the show, and she needed some space to get into the zone. It was a boundary that Paige understood and respected. Usually. This night was different. The argument that had started over dinner and gone on through the drive to the venue continued right up until stage time. It was just something minor; a question from one of Paige's friends about the hotel arrangements, but Emily was rushing to get ready for the evening and answered impatiently, which led Paige to conclude that Emily didn't take her family and friends seriously. They ended up exchanging a few choice words that they both regretted, and they were still fuming at each other when Emily dashed out of the dressing room to join her band mates.

It was obvious that Emily was off during their first set. Her mind was wandering – as were her eyes – to anywhere but Paige. As the first set wound down, Emily introduced the song that she had chosen as a dedication to Paige, "You Are the Sunshine of my Life," by saying, "This one goes out to my so-called fiancée, Paige McCullers."

Paige raised her glass bitterly in a mocking toast and slammed it down on the table with a thud. As Emily started to sing, Paige gathered her handbag and sweater and headed for the exit.

Hanna glared at Emily on the stage and didn't look away. She wanted to make sure that Emily realized how far out of bounds her behavior had been. After the first chorus, Hanna, too, got up and headed for the door. She thought that she had given Paige enough time.

Paige was making the slowest, most meandering walk possible to her car. She was on the verge of tears; on the verge of chucking it all in – the wedding, the relationship, Rosewood. She really wanted someone to talk her down, but she didn't see that happening, not from a table full of Emily's friends and family.

"Hey Paige." Paige turned towards the sound of the soft, gentle voice and saw Hanna standing behind her with her hands folded across her waist. Hanna looked up at the sky. "It's a nice night, isn't it?"

Paige tightened her lips and turned around, putting her back to Hanna again.

"Boy," Hanna said coolly, "what Emily did was way out of line. Way, way out of line. There was no call for that."

Paige scoffed.

"I know that you'd never think of doing anything like that to Emily, no matter how mad you got."

Paige, wordlessly, without turning around, slowly shook her head. It wasn't a denial that she would do it. It was an expression of disbelief that Emily had actually done it.

"Hey, Paige…" Hanna walked up closer but maintained a safe distance, respecting Paige's boundaries. "Do you want to go back inside?"

Paige really did want to go back inside. She wanted nothing more than an excuse to go back inside, but she was still angry and hurt and too embarrassed to go back in and face everybody who had seen her walk out in such a dramatic fashion.

"I have a suite at the Radley," Hanna said calmly. "If you want, you can sleep on the sofa bed in the guest area tonight. But why don't we go back inside for now?" Hanna stood next to Paige and took her hand.

Paige looked at Hanna, silently pleading for help, but not even knowing what kind of help she needed. Hanna gave her a hug. "You know Emily's really sorry. And she probably doesn't know why she said the thing she said." Hanna felt a faint nod against her shoulder. "Do you want to sit out here for a minute before we go inside?" Paige shook her head. "Okay," Hanna said, barely audibly, and they headed towards the door.

Just before they reached the door, Paige stopped. She gave Hanna's hand a squeeze and said, "Thank you."

The first thing they noticed once inside was that the music had stopped. There were random noises coming from the stage – the tuning of instruments and the occasional bit of feedback, when someone bumped against the microphone. Paige looked confused. When they got back to the stage area, they saw that Emily was gone. Back at their table, Pam was gone as well. Aria explained that Emily had run of the stage, crying, and Pam went after her. Paige tensed up and started to go to the dressing room, but Hanna restrained her. "Let Pam take care of it," she advised, and Paige, knowing that she was right, reluctantly agreed.

Paige, gloomy, sat at the table with her head tilted down. She was more upset than angry; more sad than hurt. The entire table sat in silence, giving her space to process everything she was going through.

"Well, folks," came an announcement from the stage, "due to a sudden illness, the band isn't going to be able to come back for their second set." Everyone in the room had seen what had happened. They all knew that it wasn't illness. There were a few scattered groans of disappointment. "But, never fear," the voice continued, "We're still here to entertain you. We're about to fire up the old karaoke machine, so head on over to the booth and get your requests in!"

Hanna got a text from Pam: Did you get Paige to come back inside?

Yes. How's Emily.

Freaking out. She thinks she threw their future away.

No. Paige is here.

Hanna set her phone aside and patted Paige's hand reassuringly.

Everyone at the table was on-edge, overcome with concern for the couple that meant so much to them. They knew that Paige and Emily would work things out eventually, but they didn't know how that would happen or what they could do to help.

In the meantime, things around the table were incredibly tense.

Paige was turning more and more inward the longer she sat there. Hanna could see it happening. Paige was no longer as concerned about herself and how much Emily had hurt her. It was like their night in the haunted house: When Paige saw that Emily was in trouble, all of her concern shifted to helping her. But she didn't know how she could do that, with Emily sequestered backstage. As painful as it was, she would just have to wait, and trust Pam to talk her down.

Or maybe not.

Pam's phone buzzed and she hustled Emily out of her seat, almost pushing her out of the door. "You've got to get out there right now?"

"What?" Emily was confused and still crying. Her makeup was a mess and her hair and dress were going all over the place. She didn't even have time to pull her shoes back on before Pam trundled her out of the dressing room. "Mom, stop! What's going on?"

"I don't know," Pam said urgently, "but Hanna said I had to get you out there - now!"

As they headed towards the front, Emily heard a very enthusiastic and slightly off-key voice singing, "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic." When she got to the side of the stage and saw Paige bouncing around up there, full of energy and slightly off-beat, she put her face in her hands. Seeing her standing there beside the stage with her face hidden, it was impossible to tell whether she was laughing in relief or crying.

When the second chorus ended and the bridge started, Emily slowly slid her hands off of her face and risked looking up at Paige. She knew, of course, that Paige was singing the song for her, but, still, she was a little afraid that Paige wasn't ready to forgive her and move on yet. When their eyes met, Paige walked over to the edge of the stage and held out her hand. Emily took it eagerly and climbed up the stairs to the stage, her smile now unmistakable. She took her place next to Paige, taking a step or two to get into rhythm with Paige's clumsy dancing, and soon she was bouncing around, mimicking Paige's improvised dance moves. Paige held the microphone between them so that they could sing the chorus together:

Every little thing she does is magic
Everything she do just turns me on
Even though my life before was tragic
Now I know my love for her goes on

When the song ended, Paige and Emily met in a strong embrace as the whole place went crazy. Emily whispered, "I'm sorry" over and over into Paige's ear and pulled her tighter and tighter.

"I'm sorry, too," Paige replied. "I love you."

"I love you so much!"

When they got back to the apartment and it was just the two of them, Emily hugged Paige and held her tight. She loosened her grip so that she could look into Paige's eyes, but she ended up staring at Paige's chin and neck instead. "Paige, I..."

Paige cut her off with a kiss. "We don't have to do this, Emily."

Emily shook her head. "No. We do. Because I know that you forgive me, but I need you to know how sorry I am. I'm sorry that we fought, and I'm sorry that I said what I said in front of that entire room." Emily, now looking into Paige's eyes to gauge her reaction, was gently touching Paige's cheek, needing to feel connected and safe.

Paige nodded her head and kissed Emily again. She tilted her head back to say something, but Emily kissed her again, harder; more desperately. Paige brushed the hair away from Emily's face, letting her hand come to rest on Emily's shoulder as she rubbed her back. "It's okay, Em. I forgive you. And I'm sorry for the fight, too." Emily hugged her tight again, gaining energy from their strong embrace.

"I wanted that to be a special song for us. I wanted you to hear it and think about how much you mean to me. But now, whenever you hear it, you're going to remember this night, and the awful thing I said."

Paige moved Emily's head from her shoulder so that Emily would be able to see her face as she spoke. "What I'm going to remember about this night was that we faced a difficult challenge, but our love proved stronger."

Emily nodded against Paige's shoulder. She was biting her lip to keep herself from crying, because she knew that Paige would be devastated if she saw her crying.

"Em," Paige said cautiously, "you're trembling." Emily nodded against Paige's chest, unable to speak, and unable to hold back the tears any longer. As soon as they started to fall, accompanied by Emily's soft, muffled gasps, Paige held her tighter, desperately. "Emily, are you all right?"

"Just hold me, Paige. Please. Don't let me go."