Paige quickened her step as she closed in on the location that her last correspondent with the mysterious stalker had instructed her to show up at. There was sweat forming on her forehead already, her bomber jacket not really suitable for the warm weather. She chuckled to herself. Emily would definitely have had a thing or two to say about her choice of overcoat. But Em hadn't been there when she had left her apartment. In fact, she hadn't been there for more than a week, the reminder stinging like pins and needles in her heart. It was funny how life worked that way. Because it had been almost seven years now. Seven years since she took her bag and left Rosewood and Emily for what she thought was for good. It had been less than half a year since she had almost miraculously reappeared in her life. But despite that, she had sometimes had to stop to remind herself that they hadn't seen each other for years and that a lot could change during that time, because from the moment that Emily had taken her for that bike ride, she felt like no time had passed at all. And what she had told her about her relationship status in the past years had been the truth: there had been occasional dates but nobody that she had felt like keeping around.

Paige got to the location but after having taken a look around she deducted that she was alone on the lonely little garden square. Her phone buzzed and she pulled it up to find a new anonymous message:
There are further instructions on a note taped underneath the trashcan next to the bench. Retrieve them and follow thoroughly. However, your cellphone is not coming with you. Pull the battery and sim card from it and leave it on the park bench. If you don't do this, I will know.

"Well, whatever you say," she said, fishing the note up and preparing to disassemble her phone.

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"Whoever this is, they will probably be on high alert after almost getting caught by you and Emily," Cat said, staring intensely at her computer screen. "They will take every precaution to make sure that you aren't being tracked by someone."

"Meaning what?" Paige asked, throwing her hands up in the air in mock surrender. However there was some sort of truth behind the gesture. She didn't appreciate all these games. Growing up, she had had enough of secrets and lies to last her a lifetime.

"It means that they will probably not allow you to bring your phone when you meet up with them."

"But I need someone to know where I am. I could be walking into a trap for all I know."

"I know. I bounced some ideas off of Caleb the other day. What? We started talking after that celebration dinner that Hanna threw for Emily. We run in the same circles, professionally that is. He's kind of smart," she shrugged. "Fortunately, I am smarter is why I thought of nabbing this."

The blonde unveiled a small chip sitting in the palm of her hand, no bigger than the nail on her little finger:

"It's a tracking device but they won't think to look for it. It's small enough to fit behind a button on your shirt."

"That can't have come cheap," Paige said, looking at the almost indetectable chip.

"It didn't. Which is fine because I'm not paying for it."

"Cat, you could get in trouble for this!"

"Relax. We're using it in a project that I'm in charge of and I know for a fact that we won't be needing it until next month."

"You don't have to do this."

"But I do. Because you're my best friend. And you're in trouble. When this whole thing started out…"

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you right away."

"You had your reasons. I had already moved away when it started. I don't see this as a conversation that you could have over facetime."

"I honestly thought it would all be over when I transfered. And then these letters started coming again. And I thought that if I would tell you…"

"...then they would find a way to hurt me, right?"

"I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if that had happened. Not after what happened after graduation."

"Paige, that wasn't your fault."

"I should have seen it coming. I should have been able to do something sooner."

"Nobody saw it coming. He seemed like such a nice guy. And once you found out you risked your future to smack him into next Sunday."

"Are you doing all of this to pay me back for that?"

"No. I'm doing this because you're my friend. And this is what friends do. You and Emily deserve to be happy Paige. Not looking over your shoulders for the rest of your lives."

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Paige double checked the street sign to make sure she was standing at the right crosswalk. It was a quiet part of town and she was mostly surrounded by silent, industrial housing, deserted at this time of night. A wind blew across her face and it cooled down her sweaty forehead, sending a shiver down her spine. She combed the hair out of her face, thinking back to what it was that had changed so drastically for her in the last couple of months.

When she was in college she had grown used to her first roommate and once Cat had moved into her dorm instead she found that even more accommodating. And once she went back to her parents for Christmas vacation she knew that learning to share the family home with her baby brother wouldn't be a problem since she absolutely adored him. But once she started her postgraduate she had moved out of her dorms and into a small apartment on College Avenue. The three years she had spent there had been nice, but once she got her year at Pepperdine accepted she was surprised to find how easy it was to pack her bags and move away. She told herself that part of that had to do with the fact that she would be reunited with her best friend, which was probably true. And the fact that once her stuff was all moved in, she found her new apartment to be very similar to the old; filled with photographs of her friends and family and all her stuff neatly organized in the way that she preferred it. She was content with her life being alone, happy even.

Then Emily had come along, with her smiles and hair-flipping habits, her dark eyes and infecting laughter. And no matter how Paige had tried to fight it, she had felt herself falling for the raven haired woman, all over again. Even when she hadn't admitted it to herself, she had started to think that her bed suddenly felt too cold, her couch too big and that the very best cup of coffee that she had drunk in ages had been the one that she shared with her after the night that Emily had showed up drunk and disorderly at her place at a quarter after one. And this spring, once Emily had gone back to sleeping at her own place after having spent a week on the couch after Paige had gotten better from her injury, she had found herself missing her constant presence. Fortunately she had not been left wanting for too long and it had taken Emily less than a week to find herself spending her nights at her place again, but this time not on the couch.

It had happened so seamlessly that she hadn't even thought about how different her life had become in the following weeks. She was just lost in the blissfulness of it all, hoping that what she was feeling, no matter what it was, would never go away, It wasn't until now, that she had spent the last week in no contact with the raven haired woman, and was standing at the corner of a dark street, waiting for someone she didn't even know who was that it hit her. She had spent her adult life living in apartments. Bringing her own stuff there, her photos, her books, her meticulously organized wardrobe had made it into her apartment. But being there with Emily, debating over what to cook for dinner, joking about her towel usage, bringing her steaming cups of coffee to bed when she was groggy and not ready to face the day, that was what had made it into a home.

"Home," she muttered, smiling to herself, feeling like she could almost reach out and touch it.

She was pulled from her thoughts as a dark car pulled up next to her:
"Get in."

Author's Notes: So, how does everyone feel about the premier tomorrow night? Excited? Worried? I'm happy that we get to see some Paily, but worried that the outcome might not be what I am wishing for. But for that we have fanfiction. Nevertheless I shall be tuning in.

This chapter came as a sort of an extra because I felt like writing a small segment from Paige's point of view. I don't feel like I've shown enough what she feels about the recent development. Feel free to let me know what you think about it.