"Come on, Princess! You're going to have to be faster than that to beat me." Paige grinned as she goaded her girlfriend from the edge of the pool. She was sitting on one of the starting blocks, with her legs dangling over the side and a stopwatch in her hands. Emily acknowledged her comments with an extra big splash as she turned and started on another lap. They'd stayed behind after practise, both wanting to put in the extra time in the water. Emily was determined to bring her times down, in a bid to impress the Stanford scout in the upcoming swim meet. It had been a fortnight since they'd finally gotten together, and they'd spent most of their free time training in the pool.

Emily put in a few more laps before calling it a day. She was supposed to be meeting her friends at Spencer's house for dinner. The four of them were all so busy with their significant others that they'd barely spent any time together lately. They'd agreed to a girl's night, without their boyfriends. Emily was the only one who could get around the 'no boys allowed rule'. She brought it up while she and Paige were changing. "Are you busy tonight? Please say no; that way you can come with me to Spencer's house for dinner."

"Sorry. I've kind of got plans." Paige apologised. It wasn't often that she said no to her girlfriend; but then Emily had never asked her to spend time with her friends before. She wasn't about to give up so easily.
"Come on, please? I really want you to get to know my friends. I know you know Hanna and Caleb, but Spence and Aria are really great too-"
"Em, slow down." Paige caught hold of her hands, mostly to stop her from waving them around quite so much. "I would love to have dinner with you and your friends tonight, but I can't. I'm meeting with my Grandfather's attorney, for the reading of his will."

"Oh...Oh god. Paige, I'm so sorry! You're dealing with that all of that, and here I am rambling on about dinner with my friends." It was Emily's turn to apologise to her girlfriend.
"It's fine. It's no big deal." Paige tried to reassure her as she let go of Emily's hands and started doing up the buttons of her shirt. Her fingers were shaking so bad that she ended up buttoning it up wrong.
"Is your mom going to be there?" Emily had to ask, even though she could guess the answer. She set about helping her with her shirt.
"Probably. She's tried calling a few times. Dad hasn't let her near the house. We're hoping she won't stick around long after the will has been read. She'll be gone once she gets her pound of flesh."

"You're not tempted to see her?" Emily knew there was a lot of history there, but she couldn't ever imagine not wanting to see her own mom. She watched as Paige shifted uncomfortably. Part of her wished she'd never asked. Paige was already hurting enough without Emily asking her stupid questions.
"I was. When I was five. When I was nine. When I was twelve...She's been in and out of my life so many times, that I finally just reached a point where I stopped wanting her to come back. I just wanted her to stay gone."
"I'm sorry." Emily moved in for a hug. She knew it wasn't much, but it was all she had to offer. For Paige, it was more than enough.

"How do you do that?" She sighed as she pressed her lips to Emily's and wrapped her arms around her waist.
"Do what?" Emily mumbled back, without breaking the kiss.
"Make everything feel like it's going to be okay." Paige answered, almost breathlessly. She shook her head with a small smile. "You're like my own personal sunrise. No matter how dark it gets, I know the sun's got to come up eventually."
"Has anyone ever told you you're ridiculously sweet?" Emily grinned as she laced their fingers together.
"Yes. As a matter of fact, my totally hot girlfriend tells me that all the time." Paige laughed. She claimed another kiss from her, before throwing her bag over her shoulder and checking her watch. "I got to go. You know how my dad gets about being late. He's probably freaking out as we speak. I'll call you later though; and we'll have dinner with your friends soon. I promise."

Paige got the lecture she was expecting when she arrived home late. Her father cut it short though, since he didn't want them to be late for actually meeting with the attorney. Paige's grandfather had lived in Brookhaven, the next town over from Rosewood. That's where his attorney was based too, so they had to drive over in Nick's car. It was only an hour's drive, but the journey was a tedious one. Nick kept trying to make small talk, but Paige wasn't in the mood. She was dreading seeing her mom again. Despite what she'd told Emily in the locker room, she could only turn her mom down so many times. The woman was like a virus, slowly wearing down her defences. It was only a matter of time before she broke down and agreed to speak to her. Paige was just hoping she would up and leave town before that happened.

"Claire." Nick greeted his ex wife with a curt nod as he and Paige met her outside the attorney's office.
"Nicholas." She nodded back, blowing out a cloud of smoke. She stubbed out her cigarette, ignoring the disapproving looks she was getting. "A girl's got to have one vice, right Paigey?"
"Don't call me that." Paige glared back at her. "In fact, just don't talk to me period." She shoved past her mother, heading inside. Claire went to follow her, but Nick caught her arm in a crushing grip.
"After today, you leave. You leave and you don't come back in to my daughter's life. Ever! Is that clear?"
"She's my daughter too, Nick." She wrenched her arm free, glaring at her ex in a way that reminded him all too much of Paige.
"Only by blood."

It was stiflingly hot inside the lawyer's office. There were only two leather bound chairs in front of the old man's desk. Paige and her mom sat, while Nick stood behind them, his hand resting on his daughter's shoulder. The man behind the desk was almost as old as her grandfather had been. He was almost bald, save for a tuft of pure white hair at the very back of his head. Paige couldn't see the point in it. She would have cut it; if she were a seventy year old man with only a small patch of hair left. He shuffled some papers and cleared his throat, the sound filling the otherwise silent room. He started by offering his condolences; he'd known Paige's grandfather a long time. After that, he covered a load of legal mumbo-jumbo. Paige was mostly just blocking it out, waiting for it all to be over. Maybe if she got back in time, she could drop in on Emily and her friends.

"What?" Claire suddenly shouted out, pulling Paige back out of her daze. "That can't be right!" Paige blinked as she felt her father squeezing her shoulder. She'd missed whatever her mother's outburst was all about. The attorney looked flustered as he adjusted his glasses.
"Ms McCullers, I assure you, your father's will was up to date at the time of his passing. He made his intentions clear to me, not six weeks before his death. Your daughter is to inherit everything."

"I hope Paige is doing okay. I tried calling her, but her phone's off." Emily sighed. She'd been preoccupied by thoughts of her girlfriend all evening. Her friends had noticed.
"I'm sure she'll call you the second she can." Spencer was going for reassuring, but it came out more condescending. Everything she'd heard come out of her friend's mouth, for weeks, had been about Paige McCullers.
"Spencer's right. She'll call you if she needs you." Aria managed to sound more sincere as she patted Emily's knee. The four friends were littered around Spencer's living room, with Emily and Aria curled up on one sofa and Spence and Hanna on the other. There was some trashy reality show playing on the TV, which Hanna had insisted they watch. Emily had barely caught a word of it.

"She'll call you if she needs something. Am I right?" Hanna tried wiggling her eyebrows suggestively, but she failed miserably at it, so she shot Emily a wink instead.
"Are you suffering some kind of stroke?" Spencer frowned beside her.
"I was winking at Em!" The blonde huffed.
"Why?" Emily was pretty sure she'd chosen the wrong time to start listening.
"Never mind." Hanna rolled her eyes. She didn't have it in her to repeat herself. Tact was out of the question too. "Are you and Paige doing it, or what?"
"What? No, we haven't...It's only been a few weeks. I don't want to rush it."
"I'm pretty sure nobody could accuse you and Paige of rushing anything." Hanna was all too happy to point out, with a smirk. "It'll be a miracle if you two do it before graduation!"

"Shut up, Hanna! We're going to...I mean, I want to. Trust me, I really want to." Emily looked a little flustered as she realised how that had just sounded.
"Someone's frustrated." Spencer teased. It was rare they ever got Emily to talk about that kind of stuff. Even when she'd been dating Maya, she'd kept everything close to her chest, refusing to talk about their sex life. Emily rolled her eyes at her friends as they all started getting in on the act, teasing her about Paige.
"We're training every day right now, and it's driving me crazy trying not to look at her while we're changing!"
"Are you kidding me? You guys are going out, looking is one of the basic perks." Hanna shook her head in disbelief. "Seriously, Em, you two need to kick it up a gear!"

"Han, Paige is...here." Emily jumped up as she noticed Paige's dad's car pulling in to the Hastings drive. She'd asked her to come by if she was feeling up to it after meeting with the attorney. Emily lost her smile as she noticed Paige climbing out of the passenger side. Nick had been driving. He locked the car behind him as they made their way up the drive. Spencer headed to the door, but her mother beat her to it. She'd been working on her laptop in the kitchen, so she'd obviously been expecting the McCullers if she was getting the door before they'd even made it up the drive.
"Nick, come on in." She ushered Nick inside. Paige followed her father in. Her expression was blank and her eyes were glazed over. She looked like she'd been crying. She was so out of it she didn't even notice her girlfriend at first.

"Paige?" Emily walked up to her, full of concern. "What's wrong? Has something happened?"
"Paige, why don't you stay here with your friends. I'll go speak to Veronica." Nick gave his daughter's shoulder a squeeze, before following Veronica in to the kitchen. Paige was still in some kind of daze as Emily guided her over to the sofa. Aria scooted over, letting the other two girls sit down beside her.

"What's happened?" Emily asked again. She didn't want to rush Paige, but she couldn't help her if she didn't know what the problem was. "Is it your mom?" Paige nodded, her gaze fixed on her hands. They were resting on her knees and shaking. Emily started rubbing her back. She had a feeling Paige would be losing it if the others weren't there to see.
"I got everything...My grandpa, he left everything to me." Emily wasn't sure what to say to that. 'Congratulations' just didn't seem appropriate. "He left me the house, his truck, some money in a trust fund...and my mom went nuclear. She's contesting the will. That's why we're here, so my dad can get some advice from Mrs Hastings."

"Do you want us to leave you guys alone?" Aria suggested from beside Paige, feeling a little uncomfortable. Besides Hanna, none of them really knew Emily's girlfriend all that well. It didn't seem right to be sitting there listening to her private business.
"No, no it's fine." Paige shook her head, she hadn't meant to intrude on their evening. With everything that had gone on at the attorney's office, she'd actually forgotten Emily was going to be at Spencer's house. "It's not exactly a town secret that my mom's not going to win any mother of the year awards."

"Does she have grounds to contest the will?" Spencer asked. Emily shot her a harsh glare for her trouble.
"Not helping, Spence!"
"I don't care." Paige shook her head in dismay. "She can have it all. I don't want any of it."
"Ice cream!" Spencer announced suddenly, making Hanna jump beside her. "You want ice cream! Come on." She got to her feet and took hold of Paige's hand, pulling her in to the kitchen while Emily looked on in amusement. Spencer was trying her best to be helpful. Nick and Veronica were upstairs in the study, so the girls had the kitchen to themselves. Spencer sat Paige down at the table and started listing off the various flavours of ice cream they had in the freezer.

Paige managed a weak smile as Emily stood beside her, idly playing with the end of her braid. Paige's head was thumping. There was a dull ache starting behind her left eye, and it was spreading out across her forehead. She thought about pulling out her braid, to try and ease some of the pressure at the back of her skull, but Emily was already way ahead of her. Her fingers were deftly undoing Paige's braid, and running themselves through her hair. Emily had a way of knowing what she needed without Paige even having to ask. She loved that about her.

She turned her head, pressing her face up against Emily's stomach as she wrapped her arms around her waist. Emily bent down to press her lips to the top of her head. When they both looked up again, they found Emily's friends staring at them. "You guys are so cute." Aria beamed. Paige blushed as she ducked her head. She wasn't usually the type for public displays of affection. It felt nice to be around Emily and her friends. It was helping to take Paige's mind off of her mom. She had known there had to be a reason why Claire was still hanging around town after the funeral, trying to get Paige to agree to see her. Now she knew. It was all about the money.