I'm Home

Summary: Mike is finally coming home to Graceland, but things can't ever be the same.

Disclaimer: I own nothing; Graceland belongs to Jeff Eastin and USA.

A/n: Okay… so yeah, I didn't know when I made that last author's note that I was talking about both my own story as well as the show! This season is definitely way more intense than last season was. I'm seriously wishing that Graceland wasn't just a summer show, so we could get more than 12 episodes a season!

Paige felt sick as she looked over the file Jim had pulled out for her to look at. All she could think about as she went through the paperwork was just how fucked they were if anyone from Caza found out Mike's last name or that he was back on the West Coast. After everything he'd been through – after all of the pain and the cancer treatments, he could still end up dead from something completely unrelated to any of it.

"How are you doing?"

Paige looked up at Jim, sighing and putting the case file down on her desk. "I can't focus on anything but this file… I can't stop myself from worrying about all of the possibilities…" Paige watched as the man took the file, closing it and moving it away from her desk. "What are you doing?"

"You don't need to look at this now, Paige. The FBI is handling it…"

"The only people in the FBI that I trust are my roommates from Graceland… and given their association with Mike, they most likely won't be allowed anywhere near this one. So excuse me if I'm more than a little wary of letting them 'take care' of this shit…" Paige replied. She closed her eyes, shaking her head. "I don't like not knowing what's going on… I don't like being out of the loop on something that I'm already so involved in…"

"You should go home," Jim replied. "Get some rest… try to spend some time with Mike, if you can…"

"He's in isolation… the only way I would be allowed in with him would be if I was committed to staying the whole time…"

"Then at least go home and take care of yourself… it isn't going to do you or Mike any good if you end up making yourself sick worrying about all of this," Jim replied. "But get out of this office and get away from this case file… don't let yourself get so stressed out about this. Mike is one of theirs… they're going to do everything in their power to protect him."

Paige scoffed. "I've seen how they protect their own… you don't know this, but Bello only went down because Caza's assassin came after him. Mike's surveillance team was a little too conspicuous and they were killed… he was in the house with Bello, and he ended up with a knife in his gut… then they sent him in to county lockup, fresh out of the hospital and still bleeding, and expected him to get Bello to flip on Caza to protect him…"

"Wow…" Paige watched as the man sat down, hard, on the side of her desk.

"Yeah. If Paul Briggs hadn't found out that one of Bello's corner guys was turning Bello in to Caza, Mike would be dead. The only thing that stopped Jangles from eviscerating him was a bullet to the shoulder from Briggs's gun…"

"Okay, so you have every right to be questioning their ability to take care of this situation…" Jim replied. "But worrying constantly isn't going to help you. And as bad as stress is for you, it's worse for your baby…"

Paige sighed. "I know… I know. But it's kind of hard to avoid being stressed out about all of this. It was bad enough when I just had to worry about cancer and the possible complications of this transplant… but now I have to worry about drug kingpins holding a grudge…" Paige watched as Jim started to move things around on her desk, clearly looking for the brown paper bag he'd brought back from lunch with him. "Jim…" she began as he found it.

"You didn't touch your sandwich…"

"I was a little busy this afternoon," Paige replied, motioning towards the file that Jim was still holding as far away from her as possible. "It hasn't been a good day, okay? I'm struggling enough with everything going on without having to deal with throwing up, too…"

"Jesus, Paige… you've got to eat something…"

Paige sighed, leaning back in her chair. "I know… I know I'm fucking this up royally."

"That wasn't what I meant…"

"I just… this is hard. I've had to change everything about my lifestyle without any real warning, and it's hard to keep on top of everything and still take care of myself properly…" Paige sighed, shaking her head. "It isn't fair… I can't seem to keep myself doing the right thing, and I didn't actually want to get pregnant. And your wife would do everything perfect and would want to be in my position, but she isn't…"

Paige shook her head as she realized what she'd said. "Shit, Jim… I'm sorry…"

"You need to eat." The man pushed the bag back into her hands, shaking his head.

"I shouldn't have said that…"

"Don't worry about it, okay? Just eat, and try to relax." Paige shook her head, opening the bag and pulling out the sandwich. She unwrapped it while the man watched her, taking a bite out of it to appease the man. "You really should take some time off… you aren't in a good place right now, and your health and the health of your baby should be your number one priority right now. The DEA can handle you taking some time off, and you need to rest…"

"I'm pregnant, not sick," Paige replied.

"And you aren't exactly having an easy pregnancy…"

"If there was anything to worry about, my doctor would have said something."

"You've been in and out of the hospital multiple times… I'm not sure what's going on, but if your doctor isn't worried about it you should find yourself a different doctor…" Paige let one of her hands rest against her stomach, glancing down at her little bump.

"I'm already up to my eyeballs in work to do, and I have a lease and bills to pay… I can barely afford to take time to breathe, let alone take time off to go to another doctor, adding more doctor's bills and more stress…" Paige didn't even realize that her voice was getting higher and faster as she spoke until Jim put a hand on her shoulder.

"Paige, relax…" Paige took a deep breath. "You're stressing yourself out over the minor details…"

"Money doesn't seem like much of a minor detail when you don't really have any," Paige replied. "I know I need to take care of myself and the baby, but I have to do everything to take care of us, including holding down a job so that we have health insurance and money for all of the other things we need. Mike can't exactly contribute right now, so it's all on me…"

"You don't think anyone else would be willing to help you?"

"I can't ask other people to take on my problems…"

"You don't have family? Not even the baby's grandparents?"

"Mike's family is out of the picture… he never really told me all of the details, but the gist of it is that he and his father haven't had the best relationship. And my family is… kind of a disaster, if I'm being honest. My mom doesn't even know I'm dating anyone, let alone that I'm pregnant…" Paige began.

"Your mom doesn't know about any of this?"

"My mother is dating an asshole that I can't stand, and she doesn't care about the fact that I know he's a sleazeball. The last time I went home, before we fought about him, he tried to hit on me while my mother was in the next room making him dinner," Paige replied. "I basically told her that I wasn't going to be involved with her life again until he was out of it. And that includes not letting her into my life. So we haven't spoken in about two years…"

"Wow…"

"Yeah." Paige sighed, standing up.

"You need to eat," Jim reminded.

"I know… but I also need to pee right now, so unless you want to see a pregnant woman piss herself, I would suggest moving out of my way."