Hi guys! Its me, rebanana again! Thought you could get rid of me? Not so fast ;-)

IM glad u all like the story so far, I hope it will continue to please and surprise you.

Paige found herself standing outside John's door, back at the start. His mother must've had to go home, because she wasn't there anymore, there was just John watching television. "Hey John, mind if I come in?" She asked, her voice soft, even with the stress she had just gone through with his father.

"You can come in," He said, pausing to think, "But only if you call me Johnny."

She chuckled and stepped in the white room, and noticed there were a few cards, "Can do, Johnny. Who are those cards from?"

John shrugged his shoulders, "Dunno, I think from my Auntie Alex… And mom bought me that bear." He said, pointing to a big teddy bear that said 'get well soon'. "She feels bad for me. This is the longest time I've been in a hospital." John seemed to have less of the innocence of normal ten year olds, there seemed to be a wise look in his eyes, but also hidden fear.

Paige neared his bed, pushing her brown hair out of her eyes. She smiled at John, "So you've been in the hospital before?"

"Yeah, plenty of times…" He paused, unsure of something.

"Why are you usually in the hospital, Johnny?" Paige sat next to him, and focused in on his eyes. It hurt her how much he looked like Nate; it hurt her how Nate had been so insensitive to his wife and kids, and… to her. Nobody but Nate had won. She hated herself for hating John's eyes, just because they were like Nate's. Just because he was Nate's son didn't mean that he would grow up to be a cheating liar. John seemed sweet enough.

"Um, I play lots of sports." He said, looking down at the floor.

"Oh! That's really cool!" Paige knew he was hiding something from her, but she wanted him to trust her, so she went along with his little game. "What sports do you play?"

"Soccer and baseball." He said, "The guys are tough."

"Oh really? I was never much of a sports person, although I did play softball for a bit. I wasn't very good at it. I was more artsy fartsy." Paige gave a little smile when he giggled.

"Fartsy? Ew, gross." He laughed, "You're Matthews right?"

"Yeah, my full name is Paige Matthews, but you can call me by my last name."

"Really? Cause its so much cooler! You're first name sounds like a piece of paper." He scratched a mark on his face in deep thought.

Paige pretended to be offended, "Hey! Well, I guess you're right. It kinda does, but at least it's a unique name."

"Yeah." He said, more quietly.

"Do you have any siblings?" Paige asked.

"Yeah, I got an annoying little sister, Maria. My mom's going to have another, I hope it's a boy." He put his hands together as if in prayer.

"You're hilarious, you know that?"

"Yeah," He answered, smiling. Nate's eyes sparkled in his. It reminded her of when she once sang for Nate, and, he looked so happy, so proud of her. She felt anger rush back to her, but kept it down. "Hey Matthews, do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"I have three sisters. They can be such a pain in the butt. But I love them. Lemme tell you a secret though, I kinda wanna move out." Paige leaned in and rolled her eyes.

"Really?" He seemed surprised for a second, "You can do that?"

"My sisters wouldn't like it, but I would." Then she realized he was talking generally. "But you can't move out of your house til you're like eighteen." She lied a bit.

"Oh." He seemed a bit disappointed.

This was her que, her heart started beating again, "Why do you want to leave home?"

John had another uncertain look on his face, "I dunno, I just wanna be able to do what I want. Mom and dad are always annoying me. Making me take baths every night and everything."

Paige scrunched up her nose, "Baths every night? How horrible!"

"I know!" It seemed John didn't sense Paige's jokey sarcasm.

"Well, Johnny," She said, standing up, "I better be going. I have to get home to dinner. It was very nice talking to you."

John shot her a pleading look, "Please don't go! I hate staying over night here." He raised head, and pointed down to his cast, as if to say 'feel bad for me!'

"I'll be back soon though, Johnny." She said, mussing his scruffy hair.

"Please! Matthews, stay." He looked as if he was about to cry.

"My sisters will want me to come home." She started.

"You don't have to." John looked in her eyes, "You're a grownup, and you can do anything you want!"

"Not quite," Paige smirked.

"Pretty please! With sugar on top?"

"Fine, I'll stay a bit longer, on one condition."

"What?" John asked, his eyes huge.

"Put some cherries on there too."

He gave her a big smile, "Cherries too."

Paige sat in a hospital chair and chatted with the boy. Soon, she felt her eyes droop, and took a look at John, he was breathing in and out softly, asleep.

The distance she'd traveled from the hospital had been not even close to a mile and she broke down and gave into her pain. A pain that was so real, as real as the day her pain had first started. She drove down the road in front of her and she was happy to see traffic had built up. She had time to hide this, hide the pain. Although tears had welled up in her eyes, she was happy they hadn't completely fallen. As she stopped at the traffic that was cued up and didn't look to be moving anywhere soon, she lifted the file and leaned it on the steering wheel, opening it, she looked at the picture of Johnny. She concentrated mostly on his eyes, looking deep into them she was pulled back to a moment, which for so long she had wanted to forget, she had pushed back but looking into these eyes now cause all her memories to flood back.

She lay on the bed, looking up into his deep eyes as he leaned over her. He ran a hand softly over her check. She hadn't understood fully why that simple gesture made her melt inside, but it did. She was looking at a man whom she loved, whom she had openly expressed her love to and shown her love. Something that Paige wasn't used to doing letting someone know her fully, love her fully, and be part of who she was. But with Nate, she let him be a part of her heart. Their lips met, and their hearts joined. Paige ran her hand through his hair… it all felt so right, so natural. But it was in fact too good to be true as the next thought that invaded her memories was that of which had crushed her. 'Wife' one word, so destructive to Paige's heart,

'Kids' another, her heart sunk.

'I'm married, I have a family' that was the final blow it had forced her heart to drop, hit the floor and smash into a million pieces. ---

She was pulled from her thoughts by the car behind beeping its horn at her along with a few others as the traffic had moved; yet she had stayed in one place. She threw the folder to the side, and put her foot down as the anger, upset and emotions she had been trying so hard to hide came back at her full force. The car drove, the speed picking up, as she turned off the busy roadside, and onto a side road, taking a short cut to the place she had traveled day after day.

She turned her car into the parking lot and shut off her engine, she looked in the mirror to make sure that her feelings inside weren't showing on the outside. Although she looked tired, and if someone looked into her eyes the pain was visible. She was happy to see that the mascara had done its job and when this particular tube said waterproof it meant it. Brushing her hair back from her face she mentally prepared herself for this. For walking into her place of work, and having to put any and all of her emotions away until she stole a quiet moment alone where, usually she'd walk into the manor at an hour well past midnight, where she could crawl into her bed. A bed, which she had spent times alone with the man who had caused this pain, and let the tears fall freely, allowing her sobs to escape into the pillow. Allowing her pain to have a release, she cried herself to sleep. But until then she'd have to make it through.

Her mind ran through the possible ways in which she could go about this; take all she needed from her desk and head on home. She would lock herself in her room, stay at work and isolate herself at her desk with her papers spread out in front of her, and a less than convinced smile on her face every time a colleague walked on by. Although she was leaning more towards the second option, so having to not answer questions from her sisters as to why she had been so distant lately, her mind was made up as she heard her name been growled across the office. "MATTHEWS"

She did in fact expect this, seemed that word had gotten back to the boss and she knew already she was in for it now. She put her bag on the side and waited for the inevitable to come, "MY OFFICE NOW!" She rolled her eyes and walked threw the isles of Co-workers, who gave her looks of pity and their condolences. Paige just walked into the office without even knocking.

Cowan stood up and looked at her his eyes fiery with rage, "I sent you on this case to save the kid, not assault his father"

Paige looked at him, "Self defense, he grabbed me and I reacted" Paige explained, it was cold and emotionless. Cowan looked at her, this wasn't Paige, what was wrong with her? "I've spoken to Brody, I am convinced that there may be a conflict of interest…I'm taking you off the case"

"You can't…" Paige protested

"Paige I can and I have, I'm not liable for my actions if you continue to work this case against me decision. You're walking on ice that is thin and cracking."

"Sir, look…I reacted, I know I shouldn't have but I did. It won't happen again"

"I know it won't because you're not going to be working this case again" he seemed adamant, Paige at this point knew she couldn't let this go.

"Sir you can't kick me off this case"

"I can and I am"

"Sir, he trusts me. He is talking to me"

"Paige you punched him…"

"Sir, this boy needs my help, he trusts me. I'm getting somewhere" Paige stepped forward. "I was out of line, way out of line I get that but I just reacted, he grabbed me and I swung."

He sat down and motioned for Paige to take a seat. She moved across and sat on the empty seat across from him. He leaned on the desk across from her, "I know you wouldn't have just hit him, Paige so talk to me, not only as a boss, but your friend because I can see that this case means a lot to you, and I want to let you continue, but right now I'm having trouble believing that you are not going to let emotion get in the way."

"Sir, look he is hurting that kid, I know it and you know it. I'm not going to let you down, and I'm not going to let Johnny down. Let me do my job"

He looked at Paige curiously; she really had connected with the kid. He could see it maybe that was a good thing – maybe! He shook his head. "Paige how can you manage to mess everything up…how can I be sure, that this case isn't going bring a law suit our way?" Paige stayed quiet knowing that one smart comment; humorous sentence could blow the lot.

Paige took a deep breath, "I know what happened today shouldn't have happened and I was way out of line and that right now you should be sacking me but give me one last chance" Yes, this was in fact Paige begging, "I want to save this kid, sir."

'And teach Nate a lesson' she added silently.

"Okay look, Paige this is what we are going to do, I keep you on the case but if I see anything II don't like you're off. And you don't do this alone. Officer Brody will be with you. He will go into the family with you and work with you"

"Sir…look as happy as I am that your keeping me on Brody…He's an officer"

"An officer who is fully qualified for this kind of case. You work with him…" Paige weighed up her options.

She went with it, this been the better of the options available for her. She nodded, "Sir, thank you…I'm not going to blow this"

"Make sure of it Matthew's and hey do me a favor…don't kill yourself working on this. You need sleep at some point" She knew he was referring to the recent string of nights where she had worked well into the night.

"Kyle has the father at the station so look, I'll give him a call and tell him how this is going to play out. I think maybe you should think about what happened today." Paige was thinking about today, she hadn't stopped. She nodded, and stood up and walked from the office and back to her desk.

She sat at the desk and before she could say a word the phone rang she pushed her hand threw her hair and tried to compose herself. After the fifth ring she lifted it, "Paige Matthews" She announced.

"Hey honey, you know you're hard to get hold of."

"Pipe, hey…sorry work and stuff" Paige said into the phone as she sat once again looking at the photo in the open folder.

"Hey you okay honey?" Piper sensed that something was off with the youngest.

"Why wouldn't I be? Just a lot going on down here" Paige explained

"You sound tired…you know you're working too hard."

"Well its important Pipe, not something I can put on hold" Paige said a little too harshly, and she knew it. "I'm sorry, things are just a little bad down here right now it isn't a good time"

"Well honey…I was just ringing to see if you wanted me to put you some dinner up."

"I don't think I'll be back for dinner," Paige said

"Well will you meet us at the club later?" Piper asked

Paige hadn't really spent time with her sisters in ages and the pleading in Piper's voice didn't go unmissed, "Pipe, I don't think that's going to be possible"

"Well, try?" Piper asked, "We'll have a laugh" All Paige could think about was how much she wanted to not laugh, how she wanted to go into the manor and let her emotions run free after having a day like today. "Honey we haven't spent a night together for so long…"

"I'll try Pipe, that's the best I can do right now." Paige said.

"Well, we'll be at the club, try and make it."

"I'll see how things go"

"Okay, Missy don't work yourself out its not good for you!"

"I'll speak to you later" Paige finished up the conversation, not wanting to have yet another conversation about her recently adapted work habits, conversations that had already at one point turned into an argument with the oldest.

"Kay honey" Piper eventually gave in, "Hope I see you later," with this it went dead and Paige put the phone down and looked into the file, although not really reading, just looking into eyes that identically mirrored that of the green eyes which had hurt her. But she had to get past that to some degree professionally anyway. Only when she was away from all this on her own, could she let her emotions take hold. Only then could she become immersed in her emotions.

Review! Please? Hehehe. Hope u enjoyed.