A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long to update, got a bit stuck with this chapter and distracted by a few other fics. I've got the next few chapters all planned out, so I should be back to updating regularly again soon.
"Hey Paige, what are you-" Shana was abruptly cut off as Paige caught hold of the front of her shirt, and slammed her back against the wall. The store was empty, so Paige wasn't too worried about anyone calling the cops. She had literally just stepped off the plane back from Texas, and she'd made a beeline straight to Shana's store.
"Stay the hell away from my girlfriend!" She growled at her ex, making it perfectly clear why she had her pinned up against the wall. "I swear to god, Shana, I'm done with your games! Stay away from Em, and stay away from me!" She let go of the other girl's shirt, intending to walk away.
"You're little girlfriend was the one who came sniffing around me, not the other way round. Maybe she's just getting bored of you-"
"Paige!" Ezra Fitz came bursting through the shop door and managed to pull the other teacher away before her fist could connect with Shana's face. Aria had followed him and she tried to help drag Paige outside. They'd noticed her storming inside the shop, and Emily had mentioned something about Shana trying to stir more trouble over the weekend; so Aria had expected to walk in to a fight.
It took some doing, but Ezra finally managed to bundle Paige outside. Shana went to follow after them, intending to stir things up some more, but Aria blocked her path. She was only a fraction of the other girl's height, but she was a force to be reckoned with when it came to protecting those closest to her. "I know what you tried to do to Emily. You come out here and I'm telling my boyfriend to let Paige go. Got it?" Shana glared down at her, but eventually she turned and walked back inside her store.
"Cool it, Paige!" Ezra snapped at the fellow teacher as she tried to push past him to get back inside. Ezra held her back, practically pushing her down in to the bench behind her. "What the hell was that about?" Paige shook her head in response as she pushed her hair back out of her face. Emily had told her all about Shana trying it on with her in her car Saturday night. She'd been ready to book a flight home then and there, but she hadn't been able to get anything until Monday morning. The delay hadn't helped her calm down any. The longer she'd spent away from Emily, the more worked up she'd become.
Her father hadn't been happy about her leaving before Thanksgiving, but at least she hadn't had to lie to him about it. She'd told him that there was an emergency involving Emily and that she had to go straight back home. He was going to try and make arrangements to spend a few days in Pennsylvania with her instead, but he'd booked a flight for later in the week, giving him time to put things in order before he left for the holidays.
"Ezra, why don't you and Paige go get a beer? I'm meeting my mom soon anyway." Aria suggested, knowing Emily would want her to stop her girlfriend from doing anything crazy.
"Sure." He leant in to press a kiss to the teenager's cheek. "I'll see you for dinner tonight." Ezra and Paige crossed the street and headed in to the bar on the corner. It was the middle of the afternoon, so the place was practically empty. Most of the rickety old stools were still up on top of the tables.
The two teachers took a seat at the bar and Ezra ordered them two light beers. Paige sat with her elbows on the bar top, hunched over with the weight of the world on her shoulders. Ezra gave her a few minutes to calm down, before asking her about the commotion at the costume shop. "Shana, the owner, she's my ex. She tried it on with Emily Saturday night."
"Did Emily-"
"No." Paige shook her head. "And she told me about it straight away."
"But?" Ezra pushed, knowing there was more that the younger teacher wanted to say. He could see it written all over her face.
"But, she did go with her to a bar. I get her helping Shana out at the store and wanting to get along with her for me, but how could she be stupid enough to go to a gay bar with her?" Paige demanded, her anger rising the more she thought about it.
"Emily's a good kid; but in my experience of her, well, she's a little impressionable. She probably thought she was doing good, by making an effort to get to know Shana." Ezra offered, trying to defend Emily's actions.
"I want to believe that. I do." Paige sighed as she picked at the label of her beer. "It's just... it's hard on her. All of the secrecy."
"Seems like it's hard on both of you. It's the same with me and Aria. It's difficult, trying to live your life around this all consuming secret. It got a little easier once Aria's parents found out about us. Not right away, but eventually."
"I told my dad about us. He took it better than I expected... I still haven't told Emily."
"Tell her." Ezra instructed. "It might take some of the pressure off. I've also got another suggestion. Apparently Spencer and Hanna have been having double dates with their boyfriends; Aria's mentioned it a few times now. I think she's a little jealous. I was going to suggest we go out some time. Just the four of us. What do you think?"
"Sure." Paige agreed. "I think Emily would like that."
"Great. How about tomorrow night? We could go in to the city for dinner?"
They finished their beers as they made plans for the following night. Ezra suggested staying for another, but Paige had to go meet Emily from work. She'd called her from the airport in Texas, but Emily had been working when she'd got back to town. Paige walked in to the Brew and paused by the door. It was the first time she had seen her girlfriend in almost a week, and the sight of Emily was enough to take her breath away. All of the doubts and anger vanished the instant Emily noticed her and broke out in to a wide smile.
"Hey." She greeted the older girl as she pulled on her jacket and walked over to her. Paige held the door open for her girlfriend and followed her out. She waited until they were in Emily's car to pull her in close and kiss her. She had meant for it to be a greeting, but it developed in to something more. Emily slid over on to her lap, and Paige's hands went to her hips.
"Hi." Emily giggled in to her mouth as she draped her arms around Paige's neck. "I've missed you so much..." She sighed as she tilted her head to the side and Paige peppered her neck with kisses. The car was parked in the alley behind the Brew, so there was nobody around to catch them as Paige's hand slipped under Emily's shirt.
"I've missed you too, babe... God, it's been a long week." Paige almost whimpered with frustration as her fingers brushed the underside of the other girl's bra. "We need to talk..."
"Later." Emily pleaded. "Let's just go for a drive?"
"For a drive?" Paige grinned. "You do know we have a perfectly good bed back at my house, right?"
"And I have a perfectly good car." Emily shot back with a smirk. Her words were pretty persuasive when they were accompanied by her lips right at Paige's ear. Her nails scraped lightly at the back of the older girl's neck, drawing a purr from her lips.
"Okay...drive." Paige gave in with a growl. Her eyes were clouded over with lust. Talking would have to wait until later.
"We need to go for a drive more often." Paige laughed as she and Emily stumbled through her front door. Her arms were still wrapped around the younger girl as they collapsed in a heap on the couch.
"Definitely." Emily agreed. She moved, so that she was straddling Paige's hips again, and started to kiss her. Paige let her carry on for a few moments, before pulling back and taking Emily's hands in her own. Her expression turned serious, leaving Emily more than a little anxious.
"My Dad knows about us. I told him."
"Really?" Emily had been expecting Paige to bring up the thing with Shana, not confess to outing them to her father.
"Really. I didn't get a chance to tell you, with everything that's being going on. He wasn't entirely happy about it, but he's okay with us. He wants to meet you. Properly this time."
"Wow...I wish we could tell my parents. It would make things so much easier." Emily sighed. She shifted so that she was sitting with her head on Paige's shoulder.
"We'll tell them. Eventually. Graduation isn't that far off."
"It's far enough." Emily grumbled petulantly.
"You look nice, sweetie. Are you going somewhere special?" Pam Fields caught her daughter coming down the stairs with a bag.
"I'm just staying at Aria's tonight. I mentioned it earlier." Emily had told her mom about it twice since breakfast, the older woman was just checking her story. Her daughter had barely been home for months, always staying out on the weekends and studying with Hanna or Spencer most nights. Pam was still convinced she was hiding something, and she had a sneaking suspicion it had to do with Maya.
"Do you want me to drive you over?" Pam suggested with a cheery smile, waiting for Emily to start making excuses.
"Sure." Emily took her by surprise as she agreed without a fight, leaving Pam second guessing herself. She quietly chewed at her lip for most of the car ride over to the Montgomery house. It was only as they pulled up outside and Emily went to get out, that Pam spoke up.
"Your father's going to be home in a couple of days. I want us to spend some time together...you've been staying out a lot lately."
"I'm just making up for lost time with my friends." Emily lied. "I'll stay home for the rest of the holidays. I promise." That was good enough for Pam. She nodded at her with a tight smile.
"Okay, I'll see you in the morning."
Emily waved goodbye to her mom and ran up to the house. She'd already been running late before her mom had decided to stop for family time. "Hi Mr Montgomery." Emily greeted Aria's dad as he opened the door for her on his way out. "Bye Mr Montgomery!" She raced up to her friend's room, pulling her shirt over her head the second the door was closed behind her.
"You're late. Ezra and Paige are waiting for us down the street!" Aria was already dressed for dinner. She was wearing a figure hugging black dress, with her hair tied up in an elegant twist. She could pass for being twenty-one easy.
Emily on the other hand, was dressed like she was going to a football game. She pulled her change of clothes out of her overnight bag, hoping they wouldn't be too creased. She swapped her t-shirt for a white silk blouse and exchanged her jeans for a black pencil skirt. Lastly, she slipped on a pair of heels and ran her fingers through her hair, to add a little more volume to it. "Okay, I'm ready. I think my mom drove off already. She's getting really suspicious." Emily peeked out of the curtains to make sure.
"Maybe you could just tell her we're dating?" Aria suggested with a teasing smile. "Your mom's always liked me."
"Yeah, you really don't want that." Emily laughed the suggestion off as she packed her overnight bag back up. "My mom would drive you crazy in a week."
"It's okay. I think we're strong enough to make it."
The two girls were still giggling as they climbed in to Ezra's car. He'd parked down the bottom of the street, out of sight of the house. Aria sat up front and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Paige was already in the back, her cell phone pressed to her ear. Her eyes widened at the way Emily was dressed. She'd never seen her girlfriend looking so sophisticated. "Sorry, I can't tonight. Maybe we can hang out after Thanksgiving? Okay, see you soon." She hung up and greeted the younger girl with a kiss.
"Who was that?" Emily inquired, wondering who Paige had just blown off.
"Wilden. He wanted to meet for a drink. I told him I had plans with my amazingly sexy girlfriend...and our friends." Paige added, remembering they weren't alone in the car.
"This was a great idea." Aria beamed from up front. She'd been subtly dropping hints to Ezra for them to double date for a while. Emily couldn't agree with her more. It felt nice to be doing something like a normal couple for a change. Driving in to the city, they wouldn't have to lie or sneak around for an entire evening. Paige and Emily could hold hands walking down the street and not have to worry about anyone from school seeing them. They ended up at a fancy restaurant, where the waiters referred to Ezra as 'Mr Fitzgerald'. He ordered a bottle of wine for them to share, and no one asked to see any ID; though both teenagers still had their fake licenses from the time they'd crashed a college party with Allison. Ezra raised his glass, to propose a toast before their appetisers arrived. "Here's to a night of fine food and good company." The girls all followed suit and held their glasses up to meet his.
"Okay, so who are we?" Aria asked as she put her wine glass back down on the table.
"Uh, sweetheart, maybe you should stick to one glass?" Ezra suggested with a weary smile, making his young girlfriend roll her eyes.
"Come on, none of you have ever played this game before?" Aria looked at the puzzled faces staring back at her from around the table. "Nobody knows us. We can be whoever we want to be. Like a lawyer or an artist or something."
"Count me out." Paige held her hands up with a shake of her head. "I'm terrible at the whole role play thing." Emily choked on her wine beside her, fighting back a coughing fit as some of it went down the wrong way.
"That came out so wrong." Paige quickly tried to backtrack. "I meant the game you're talking about. Melissa used to make me play it. I was never very good at it. Ian was...he could pretend to be anyone."
"Except a decent human being." Emily huffed. Ian Thomas was a sore point among her and her friends; it was pretty understandable, seeing as he had killed the person who had kept their group together. It had been hard for them all after Alison's death, but Emily had been struck harder than the rest. Paige reached over and took hold of her hand under the table, feeling like a jerk for bringing Ian up in the first place.
"Ali always loved that game. Remember that time we went to Pittsburgh and she spent the entire trip speaking French?" Aria laughed, managing to get a smile out of her friend.
"She didn't know any French. She kept talking gibberish to that old woman on the tour bus." Emily cracked up, her mood finally lifting again. The rest of dinner was relatively uneventful. They were just two ordinary couples, sharing a meal and swapping stories. Ezra and Paige did most of the talking. Between them, they had over a decade of life experience on the two teenagers.
They'd made reservations to spend the night at a nearby hotel, to save any of them having to drive back. Once they'd dumped their bags in the rooms, the group headed back downstairs to the bar for a couple more drinks. They claimed one of the empty booths at the back. Paige was starting to feel the effects of too much wine with dinner. Emily was cuddled in to her side, and Paige had her arm wrapped around her. Her fingers had found their way under Emily's blouse, and her thumb was running in circles over the soft skin of her back. Emily shifted beside her, clearly starting to get worked up. Paige smiled around the beer bottle she brought up to her lips. She was hoping Aria and Ezra would call it a night first, so she wouldn't look quite so desperate to get Emily upstairs to bed.
"Tonight's been great. We should do this more often. I feel like we hardly get to hang out anymore." Aria was slurring her words just slightly as she leant over to hug Emily. She was right though. Emily hadn't had much time for her friends since she'd started dating Paige. It seemed like they were always sneaking around, hiding out at her house.
"Aria's right. We should make this a regular thing." Paige agreed. She'd only gone on the double date for Emily's benefit, but it had been surprisingly fun. She and Ezra had plenty in common, and Aria was pretty interesting to talk to. She reminded Paige of Ella; she'd been her favourite teacher back in high school, so that was no bad thing.
"We can do dinner at my place next time?" Ezra suggested, while he subtly slipped an arm around Aria's waist to guide her to her feet. "We should probably call it a night though." "Yeah...it's late." Paige eagerly nodded as her hand found Emily's knee under the table.
"Really late." Emily agreed with a giggle. She loved it when Paige couldn't keep her hands to herself. The older girl had a way of making her feel like the most desirable person on the planet whenever her hands started roaming over her body.
The two couples headed up to their rooms, with Aria and Ezra getting out of the elevator a couple of floors before Paige and Emily. The doors had barely closed behind them when Paige turned and pushed Emily back up against the mirrored wall. Her fingers tangled themselves in the younger girl's hair as they started to kiss. They were still making out as they stumbled out of the elevator and down the hall towards their room. Emily dug the key card out of the pocket of Paige's slacks and tried to break away from kissing her long enough to get the door open. "Paige..." She gasped as her girlfriend's lips found the side of her throat and her hands slipped under her blouse. Paige raked her nails softly down Emily's sides, grinning at the way she arched back against her.
The door finally popped open and they both almost fell face first in to their hotel room. The couple were fighting back a fit of giggling as they stumbled inside, tugging and pulling impatiently at each other's clothes. Paige lost her dinner jacket and shoes at around the same time Emily's silk blouse hit the floor. Once her heels were off, Emily was no longer towering over Paige, making it easier for them to kiss. With a bit of manoeuvring, and holding on to Paige's shoulder for support, Emily managed to slip her skirt off without falling over. The alcohol had left a warm, fuzzy feeling in the pit of Emily's stomach, though it started to move further down as Paige dropped to her knees and kissed the inside of her thigh.
Emily took a step back and dropped down on to the bed, not sure her legs would carry on supporting her for much longer. Paige moved with her, covering the length of Emily's body with her own. She unbuttoned her shirt while Emily worked on the zip of her slacks. "Em..." Paige sighed as her girlfriend's hand slipped in to her trousers, her fingers rubbing over the thin material of her underwear.
"Paige." Emily smiled smugly up at her as she increased the pressure of her movements. Paige's hips shot forward, pushing her up against Emily's hand.
"God, you drive me crazy..." Paige growled out as her lips sought Emily's again. Her fingers went to work on the clasp of her bra, getting the bothersome item of clothing out of her way. She dipped her head once Emily's chest was exposed, kissing each of her breasts in turn, before lightly raking her teeth over one of her nipples. She took it in her mouth, her tongue teasing out a soft moan from her girlfriend's lips. Emily's hand was still down her pants, building up a tortuously slow rhythm that had Paige impatiently rolling her hips, to try and get her to pick up the pace.
They were interrupted by the shrill sound of Emily's cell phone. "Forget it." Paige groaned as the other girl moved to answer it.
"I can't. It's my mom." Emily had set the ringtone so she'd always know when her mom was calling. It wasn't often that she called her so late; it wasn't like she could just ignore her. Her mom could be calling about her dad, or anything. "Hey, is everything okay?" Paige let out a sigh of frustration as she climbed under the covers and waited for her to finish on the phone. She lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling while Emily cuddled in to her side. She ran her thumb over the bare skin of Emily's shoulder, struggling to resist the urge to start kissing her again.
"Mom?" Pam Fields sat on the steps of her front porch, the cordless house phone clutched in one hand and an unsealed envelope in the other. "What's wrong?" She heard her daughter's voice almost as if it was coming from the distance, not the phone pressed against her ear. It was the second phone call she had made after finding the letter on her doorstep; the first had been to Byron Montgomery.
"Nothing's wrong." Pam finally choked out. "I just wanted to say goodnight... You're still staying over at Arias tonight, aren't you?" There was a slight pause before Emily answered; before she lied to her.
"Yeah. We're just watching the end of a movie and then we're going to bed."
"Okay." Pam's grip on the phone tightened. "Goodnight." She hung up and placed the phone carefully down on the step beside her. Turning her attention back to the envelope she'd received earlier, she pulled out the folded piece of copier paper and smoothed it back out to read it through again. She wasn't sure who had left it on her doorstep for her to find, or how they had managed to get a copy of Detective Wilden's notebook. She didn't care about any of that. Pam Fields was too concerned with what the detective's hastily scrawled notes revealed:
'Paige McCullers alibi confirmed, Wednesday night - Screwing Fields girl.'
