Emily woke up early the next morning with a crick in her neck. It took her a moment to realize why she felt so uncomfortable, and, when it hit her, she jerked her head up in a panic, fearing that she was alone on the couch. When she realized that she was still feeling the expanding and contracting of Paige's chest against her back, she relaxed, stroking the arms that encircled her waist as if to prove to herself that they were real.

Paige's arms weren't the only thing around Emily. She and Paige were under a very warm blanket, as well. Emily realized that her mother must have come to check on them, as she feared might happen, but, amazingly, her mother had apparently decided that their impromptu sleepover was okay.

She felt Paige's lips move against the back of her neck, and it tickled. She spun around and kissed those lips, quickly pulling away and covering her mouth. "Sorry – my breath must taste like the monkey cage at the zoo!"

Paige slid her hands down, ultimately planting them in the back pockets of Emily's jeans. She squeezed, pulling Emily closer, and kissed her again. "I don't care what it tastes like," she asserted, her early morning voice even huskier than usual. "Just kiss me."

Emily did, and then leaned back with a sigh, her head almost dangling off of the couch. "You realize what we have to do now, right?" Paige nodded, and Emily sprang from the couch. "Oh, crap, Tricia! What time is it?" Paige stifled a giggle. "Tricia! Get up! We fell asleep!" Emily widened her eyes at Paige, silently commanding her to play along, but Paige wasn't biting. Even though she was able to lead a secret life, she wasn't all that good at this kind of improvisational theater. Emily had to carry the load all by herself. "My Mom's going to kill me! Your mom's going to kill me!"

They heard the sound of Pam Fields' feet hitting the floor and shuffling down the hallway upstairs. Then, they heard her voice, and Paige leapt from the couch, standing at attention. "Relax, you two. I called Christy when I saw that you guys had fallen asleep on the couch, so, she knows where you are, Tricia."

"I'm so sorry, Mom!"

"It's all right, Emmy. Just, next time, ask, okay?" Emily and Paige both nodded. "And only one of you on the couch." They nodded again, but, this time, Paige kept her head down, trying to hide the involuntary smile and blush that had appeared on her face.

Pam gathered her robe around her and slowly made her way downstairs. "Do you drink coffee, Tricia?" Paige nodded. Emily elbowed her in the ribs, trying to get her to open her mouth. She still hadn't said a word to Pam – or to Emily, for that matter, ever since Pam appeared at the top of the stairs.

"I'll make the coffee, Mom," Emily volunteered. "And Tricia and I can make breakfast. You just relax."

"Well, that would be lovely, girls. Thank you." Pam fished a pair of reading glasses out of the pocket of her robe and grabbed her laptop, opening it in her lap as she sat in the loveseat and checked for mail from her husband. Wayne had been called back to Texas. It would be another two weeks before he was able to return for Christmas.

Emily and Paige were still love-drunk from their first overnight together. The kitchen seemed too small; - they kept having to bump one another out of the way. Any excuse for physical interaction. As Paige stirred a bowl of egg whites on the counter, Emily reached over her shoulder to grab some plates from the cabinet. She rested her arm on Paige's side, and her body pressed against Paige's as she extended her arm and reached for the plate. Paige let out a moan of contentment and tilted her neck back, smiling at Emily. Emily gave Paige's side a squeeze, causing her to shriek out a giggle and jerk her body away, almost making Emily drop the plates.

"Sorry," Emily said, stroking Paige's cheek. She hadn't meant to tickle her girlfriend. She was just enjoying the experience of being together.

Paige closed her eyes and sighed at the contact of Emily's hand on her face. "Can you imagine how great it would be to do this every day? At college, I mean," she added quickly. She wasn't talking about moving in with Emily.

"Roommates?" Emily said, smiling uncontrollably.

"Yeah," Paige said wistfully. She leaned in and kissed her, and, afterwards, let her stare linger, her hand still resting on the back of Emily's neck. "All right," she said after a few moments. "The eggs are ready to go. What's next?"

Pam heard the two of them buzzing around in the kitchen, giggling and whispering. She couldn't help remembering when she was young and in love, and cooking for someone, rather than with someone. She sighed at that thought. This wasn't what she had envisioned for her daughter – or for herself, as a mother. But, she realized that it was what she had always wished for Emily. Every mother wants her child to be happy and to find love.

Pam remembered the night when she stumbled on Emily and Maya together. It was a horrible scene. She was crying. Emily was crying. Maya was defiant. When Wayne came home, Pam couldn't believe that he wasn't as upset by the news as she was.

It was the questions that Emily asked her, through tears, that changed Pam's perspective. "Mom, why can't I be allowed love? Doesn't everybody deserve a chance to find someone whom she truly loves? Isn't that what you always said that you wanted for me? We're all just trying to figure out our way through this world and try to find a little happiness, and it's hard enough as it is. So, if I manage to find some tiny shred of happiness, couldn't you just be happy with me?"

Pam didn't know whether or not Paige was the one. She didn't know how long she and Emily would last. But she knew that Paige made her daughter happy. And she knew that what Emily had told her was true: It's hard to find that person - whoever it may be - with whom you can truly be yourself and truly be happy, but everyone deserves a chance at that.

"So, what are you girls doing today?"

Emily looked at Paige. "Looking at colleges?"

Pam nodded, taking another bite of her toast. "And, what colleges are you thinking about, Patricia?"

"Well, I've always had a dream of going to Stanford." Paige snuck a knowing look over at Emily.

Pam looked at Emily, too, but her expression was confused, not knowing. Turning back to Paige, she asked, in a soft, apologetic voice, "It's kind of an expensive school, though, isn't it?"

Emily turned to Paige with a sad smile. "I told my Mom about the scholarship thing."

Paige nodded and took a moment to consider her words. Emily's parents had been briefed on Paige's family's situation, so Paige knew that she could give Pam the good news.

When Paige told Pam about the reward and the scholarship fund, Pam dropped her fork and took Paige's face in her hands. "Oh, Honey, that's terrific!" Paige just smiled awkwardly. "So, you and Emmy could go to college together, room together?" The pitch of Pam's voice was getting higher and squeakier with every word that she spoke. It seemed that she was more excited about this prospect than Paige and Emily themselves were.

"Well, I don't know about that," Paige said. "Emily will probably be living in the athletic dorms."

Pam exhaled. "But still, my baby won't have to go off to California all by herself!"

"That's if I get in, Mom."

"And if I get in," Paige echoed. Each one was confident that the other had what it took to get into Stanford, but less confident about her own prospects.

"Ugh! You, with the brains, and you, with the swimming? Stanford should consider themselves lucky that you're even interested!"

When they had finished eating and talking, Pam stood up. "Well, girls, it's been fun. Thank you for the lovely breakfast. I'm going to grab a shower and get dressed." She reached for her plate, but Emily intercepted her.

"Relax, Mom," she told her. "We've got this?"

"Well, I could definitely get used to this!" Pam made her way up to the stairs before she turned around and reminded them, "But, next time, remember: You ask before Tricia stays over."

"So, what do you know about Stanford?" Emily asked as she passed Paige a plate to stack in the dishwasher.

"I know that it's an excellent school," Paige said with a smile. "A couple of my former teammates and I spent a lot of time checking it out on-line, you know. It was like our dream school."

"Shana?" Emily tried to keep her tone even, but there was always something in her voice whenever she said that name. Paige shrugged her shoulders. "It's okay to talk about your ex," Emily said softly, looking away from Paige. Everything about the way that she said it was screaming that it really wasn't okay. Emily wasn't worried about Paige's past, but she didn't like to think that Paige had spent time thinking and dreaming about going to Stanford with some other girl the way that she was now talking and dreaming with her.

"We talked about going as a team, Em. Shana was part of that, because she was one of the top swimmers on the team. But we weren't together then. It's not as if I was talking about rooming with her. Pushing the beds together."

Emily nodded. "Would it be weird if she ended up going to Stanford?"

Paige's eyes widened and she put her hand on Emily's shoulder. "I hadn't even thought of that!" Paige's mood changed. "I guess I need to have a talk with my caseworkers," she mumbled with a sad sigh.

Emily actually hadn't thought about that, either. She was only thinking that it would be awkward for Paige to be around her ex again, now that she and Emily were together. The fact that it might blow Paige's cover and put her family in danger hadn't even occurred to her.

Paige saw the look in Emily's eyes and tried to calm her. "I'm not sure that any of them were really Stanford-caliber, anyway. And, besides, I'm sure that they all figured out why my family suddenly disappeared." Paige shrugged. "I'll just have to talk to my caseworkers. There's got to be some solution."

There were solutions, but they weren't very palatable. Even though it was likely that Paige's old friends had figured out that her family was under federal protection, they didn't know any of the details. If they reunited with her, they would know her new name and, eventually, where the family was living. The more people who knew that level of detail, the harder it would be to ensure that the wrong people didn't find out.

The caseworkers would have to work closely with the office of admissions at whatever school Paige chose. If any of her old classmates enrolled in the same university as Paige, they would have to do their best to isolate her from them. Paige would have to live off-campus and avoid big college events such as athletic competitions and parties, and the caseworkers would have to monitor her class schedule to ensure that she wasn't enrolled in any classes with people from her old school.

Paige would have all the studying and hard work of college with none of the things that make college memorable.

Over the course of two days, Paige and Emily's college dreams had gone from low to high, only to come crashing down again.