Just a quick note: thanks for the follows and the reviews thus far. You will notice a shift in tone for this chapter - and this will probably hold to form for much of the rest of the story. So just go with the flow.

As with everyone else I don't own PLL or anyone affiliated, married to or serving lunch to the show and it's creative team. I just don't have the street cred for that.

"You're rude."

"Excuse me?"

"You. Are. Rude."

Emily turns to Paige ready to unleash weeks, no, years worth of tension in a fight for the ages. Just as she takes a deep breath in preparation to drop a verbal assault, she stops.

Emily doesn't want to fight. She never wanted to fight with Paige because Paige would always crumble, never having the heart to stand up for herself no matter the argument. Sure, having an undefeated record in arguments did wonders for the confidence the few times they disagreed. Just the same…seeing Paige deflate was the last thing she wanted. She knew it was out of love but Emily never understood why Paige swallowed her pride so often, why she found it necessary to cave even when she was right.

"Why am I rude?" Emily sighs.

"No hello? Even after how long has it been?"

Two years, nine months and 18 days, Emily thinks.

"Yeah, you're right."

"So?"

Emily releases a brief chuckle. "Hello."

"Hello back."

Paige returns her attention to the road and eventually Emily turns away to stare out the passenger window. The truck rumbles at an even pace down the freeway but to Emily the passing businesses and traffic are a blur. San Jose is a great city but there is nothing holding her there, she thinks sadly - the result of too much training and not enough fun.

She still is part of the gang of four from high school and she tries her best to keep in touch with Aria, Spencer and Hanna despite the distance. They are her touchstone, losing them would be just too much to bear.

But college friends? She had teammates, roommates, classmates. Lots of 'mates, not many mates, so to speak.

She leans her head against the window wondering how that happened. It only takes a moment to realize she knows exactly why - it's because of the young woman across the bench seat from her. Paige took more than her belongings and history with her to Santa Barbara - she took Emily's hopes and her heart.

She struggles with remembering just how it happened. They were so happy, finally away from the Rosewood craziness and Paige's nut job father. Not that Nick McCullers didn't try to strong arm them from a distance - but Paige herself said it was a lot easier to ignore him on the phone or email than it was when he was pounding on her bedroom door. The distance was such a blessing, allowing them to focus on their relationship and school - a fresh start for them and at first it was perfect.

Everyone close to the swimming program knew Paige and Emily came as a package deal and at first that seemed fine. However, a month into their first semester the outside view of their relationship 'evolved'. Quiet approval morphed into distant whispers and Paige's paranoia started to get the best of her. Her attention to gossip and inattention to the little things with training (proper sleep, diet, etc.) caused her to cave under the weight of expectations and nagging injuries.

Paige then did the last thing Emily ever expected her to do: she quit. Her Paige wasn't a quitter so Emily knew there was something going on beyond frustrating injuries. She lost count of how many times she begged Paige to open up and tell her what she was thinking. But as many times as she asked, Paige's baby browns would well with tears when she said she didn't know.

And then – she was gone. Off to study at UC-Santa Barbara. Emily was well aware of Paige's interest in transferring but she never thought she would actually do it. She still didn't believe it when Paige said goodbye with passionate kisses and sobs on her doorstep in Rosewood.

Paige flew to California just hours later leaving Emily behind in a state of shock that persisted for weeks afterward, up to the time she herself left home for her sophomore year at San Jose State. That whole time the same mantra ran through Emily's head (and if she was honest with herself) still peeked through occasionally: "What did I do? How could this have happened? Why won't she talk to me?" Strangely enough Emily never questioned Paige's love for her but she couldn't understand the silence. Aria, Spencer and Hanna were her sisters and they shared everything but Paige was her love and her best friend and they couldn't talk. It was frustrating and heartbreaking.

As the months went by texts and phone calls went from several times daily to occasional check-ins during the week. Emily understood Paige was really busy – she had somehow gone commando nerd with her interest in computer science – but she was too busy to talk or just gossip or complain about the day? Emily wouldn't have believed it if the Pope himself told her it was true.

At some point communication just stopped and from what Emily could remember they didn't ever technically break up – they just drifted apart. At that point Emily became part of a walking wounded, going through the motions in school and at practice but never really believing this was her life. The one thing she was sure of, depended on and wanted so badly had just vanished into thin air.

As time went on Emily did well in her classes and performed well enough in the pool to keep her scholarship but she was never outstanding. Her specialness had left the moment Paige had tearfully walked away that August morning in Rosewood and without it she was just plain old Emily Fields.

Becoming distant with Paige was such a small mistake but it cost Emily everything.

"So how've you been?"

Emily is jolted from her daydreaming, jumping a few inches off the seat as her heart beats out of her chest.

"What?"

"How are you?" Paige asks. The tension in the cab of the truck is choking her to death so her question was her attempt to chop the stress into smaller pieces. But it seems Emily isn't going to make it any easier.

"Oh, I'm all right. You?" Emily says.

"Not bad."

"Good." And yet more tension. God, this is like getting my wisdom teeth pulled out with a pliers, Paige thinks. So she tries again.

"How'd you get roped into this?"

Emily smirks. "I have a Rosewood bank account which has magically taken a nosedive in the balance department."

"Ah, the support angle. Good one, Pam." Paige grins and glances at a passing billboard advertising a local truck stop. Her stomach is growling but she didn't want to stop right away, she just wanted to get to Reno and the hotel they were staying at for the night.

"What about you? What did Nick do to you - or say, maybe?"

Paige sighs, hating to get into her dad's motives more than she had to. "Guilt trip. Heavy and hard core. He gave me this song and dance about how expensive school was when I quit swimming and that I'd be doing him a personal favor by bringing you home - and by him he meant not only Nick McCullers but starving kids in Africa, disenfranchised voters in Florida, those dogs and cats in the ASPCA commercials...oh, and Canada."

"Canada?" Emily replies in confusion.

"Yup, Canada. The whole country of Canada. Especially Manitoba for some reason," Paige says matter-of-factly.

Emily can feel her mood lighten just a bit. "Just when did your dad acquire a sense of humor?"

"After his heart attack last year."

Well, there's a buzz kill. Just as quickly as Emily's mood lightened she was thrown back to Cranky Town. "Whoa, what? He had a heart attack?"

Talk about bringing down the room, Paige thinks. Frustration with her nervous yapping is causing her to throw out the story matter-of-factly when in reality she still had a hard time dealing with her emotions concerning her dad. Old habits die hard.

"Yeah, he had to have a triple bypass and was laid out for months. Since then I haven't had the guts to tell him no - of course, these days he doesn't ask for anything too important so it's not a big deal. It's kinda funny, or ironic, I guess - all those years I accused him of not having a heart and only I find out he had one, it just didn't work very well."

Emily can see the pain and confusion in Paige's face about her dad. He treated her like a prized filly instead of a daughter for much of her life so his failing health probably put her in an unwarranted shame spiral. She didn't have to feel guilty but she did, like Paige always does.

Yes, this is about Paige – but at the same time Emily found a way to make it about herself, too. Dammit, why didn't she call me? Whatever happened between us I would have been there for her, Emily thinks. Why does she have to make everything so hard?

"Paige, I'm sorry - I didn't know."

"That's all right, how could you have known?"

"You could have called."

Paige lets this go. Couldn't Emily guess she wanted to pick her phone a million times when her dad was in the hospital, a million times more when he was rehabbing at home? Paige caught herself spending whole chunks of her time, five minutes to an hour sometimes, just staring at Emily's entry on the speed dial of her phone. All she had to do was dial #1 and she would hear Emily's melodic "hello" on the other end of the connection. It was really that simple.

But yet, it wasn't. Too much time had passed and Paige figured that Emily had probably moved on anyway. She was absolutely gorgeous and was the sweetest person on Earth so Paige figured Emily's prospects were pretty good after she transferred, probably a lot better than she cared to think about.

Emily chooses to break the silence this time around.

"So your dad planned this whole thing? Even me?"

"I'm not sure how you figured into it but he did the itinerary and reserved the rooms and all that. When he was recovering he got a little obsessed with the internet - now, I swear he's the guy who invented the phrase "there's an app for that"." Paige laughs.

"So he sent me the stop by stop directions he mapped out with little side trips he thought would be interesting - you know, only for a few minutes or an hour or so. He made me promise to get plenty of pictures, too. I printed out his whole nerdy 'plan'; it's in that black binder on the dash."

Emily reaches for the binder and takes a moment to look out the window. The cityscapes of San Jose, then later Sacramento, have morphed into rocky, rolling hills cut through with the winding grey of the interstate. Picturesque, but still lonely. As she glances down at the pages in the binder she tries not to laugh.

"Holy crap this is detailed! And very impressive!"

"I guess," Paige relents.

Emily skims the color pages, gazing at maps and photos of places she figured Nick felt were important. Her eyes eventually catch a small list under each stopover, the contents of which make her almost swallow her tongue and a few of her back teeth.

"Umm, Paige, did you read this whole thing?" Emily asks as she coughs.

"I skimmed it, figured I'd look at it for each part of the route rather than dwelling on it. As long as we end up at our hotel each night it shouldn't be too big of a deal. Why?"

Emily clears her throat but the words still barely leave her lips. "I am looking at a few stops along the route and - - it looks like your dad has lists of gay bars for each place we're staying. Tracks in Denver, The Blazing Saddle in Des Moines..."

"Shut up, it does not!" Paige pleads.

"Oh God, it does so! I can't believe it but your dad is now officially a riot!"

Emily can no longer contain her laughter. Her face breaks into a huge smile and it sounds like her laugh comes from her toes, causing Paige to jolt in lust. She could never get enough of Emily's laugh, she was addicted to it.

Her embarrassment and confusion causes Emily to laugh even harder and Paige laments that she doesn't remember Emily taking so much pleasure in her humiliation before.

"Okay, I'm calling him, there's no way I can wait a week until he hears it about this."

Paige digs her cell from her pants pocket. She dials, her parents' phone rings a couple times before Paige's mom answers. "Hi Mom, how's things?"

"Good! Are you on the road?"

"Yep, a couple hours out of San Jose headed to Reno." Paige glances at Emily who seems very interested in the conversation taking place. Not much else to do but stare out the window, Paige figures.

"Any problems so far?"

Paige doesn't want Emily to keep track of the conversation like she's keeping score so she decides to give as short an answer as possible to her mom's questions.

"Nope," Paige says.

"Any sparks yet?"

Rolling her eyes Paige is surprised her mother took less than a minute to get to that question. "Mom..."

"Honey, I know your dad gave you all these excuses why you needed to bring Emily with you but you know as well as I do the main reason why he did what he did."

Her mother brings the conversation back to the point and Paige is so grateful. "Is he around?"

"He's taking a nap. We had an appointment this morning and that usually tires him out pretty easily."

"Is he okay?"

"Oh, yes, he's fine."

Paige frowns in disappointment. "Don't wake him up then. But I'm wondering - are you sure he didn't fake this whole heart thing so he could mess with my head?"

"Pretty sure, dear."

"'Cuz, the reason I called..."

"What do you need?"

Could this get any more humiliating? Ah yes it can, Paige thinks. "Emily was reading through the itinerary and – crap - Dad put a list of gay bars in there, too."

"I know - isn't that just the funniest thing?"

"Seriously, Mom, come on!" Paige cries, knowing now the humiliation is complete.

"Your dad is having a little fun with you. And hey, if you happen to be thirsty..."

Fed up with the conversation, Paige says, "Mother, I am going to hang up now."

"Okay honey, love you, be safe."

"I will."

Emily turns to Paige, waiting with almost baited breath to hear what happened on the phone.

"Well?"

Paige does a nasally voice trying to mock her mother when she says, "Mom thinks 'it's the funniest thing.'"

"It kind of is."

"Right."

"And besides, if we happen to get thirsty..."

Paige is taken aback by Emily's response, almost-verbatim to her mom's. Her eyes squint as she surveys the twisting road ahead.

"You're really enjoying this, seeing me squirm."

"Yeah, I sort of am."

Shaking her head she looks back at Emily. Her breath leaves her as the sunset glistens off Emily's dark hair, causing a riot of browns, blacks and even a little red to glisten through the sun's falling rays. Paige loves Emily's hair, the texture is so soft and she swears it never snarls because she used to run her hands through it for hours as they rested or studied with Emily's head resting comfortably in her lap.

Paige's eyes darken and suddenly become serious just as Emily senses the change in her mood. Her grin fades and Emily lowers her eyes, flipping through the pages of the binder trying not to ask the questions that crowd her mind. Paige glances back at the road, internally cursing herself for letting her mind go there.

Yep, it's official, Paige thinks. Someone up there hates my guts.