"Wait, you're the anchor for the Red Devils? You kicked my ass last season! That last home meet we went up against you guys, I set a personal best in the relay, and you still beat me." Emily exclaimed. She didn't seem too upset by the defeat though. She was grinning as she brought it up. She and Paige were sitting in the back of Spencer's car, with Spence and Toby up front. Emily had asked her which team she belonged to, and had figured out where she'd seen the other girl before.
"Sharks, right? From what I remember, you were pretty tough competition." Paige wasn't just trying to be nice. She had watched the Sharks' anchor throughout the whole meet, figuring she was going to give her some trouble in the relay. Paige had broken some of her own records trying to beat the other girl. "I'll have to look out for you this season."

Spencer glanced up at the rear-view mirror, catching the exchange going on in the back. Her twin and her best friend seemed completely at ease with each other, like they had been friends for years, rather than just hours. It was the first time Spencer had seen her sister smiling. She made a mental note to ask Paige exactly which team she swam for; she had a feeling it was the same one as Emily. "You better watch out for me, I've been training like crazy all summer!" Emily laughed, challenging the other swimmer.
"Oh really? Well why wait for the next meet?" Paige wasn't the type to turn down a challenge. Up front, Spencer rolled her eyes at the two of them.
"Play nice, kids, or I'm turning this car around." It was an idle threat of course, they were already pretty close to Mt. Lebanon township.

Spencer stopped the car for gas at a station on the outskirts of the town. Paige and Toby climbed out to use the bathroom, leaving Emily alone in the car when Spencer came back. "So, you and Paige seem to be getting on like a house on fire...do you think she might be gay?"
"Why? Because if I get along with a girl she obviously has to be?" Emily scowled, taking Spencer's observations the wrong way.
"That's not what I meant and you know it." Spencer argued. "I dunno, she just seems pretty in to you."
"We both swim." Emily shrugged, playing down her own attraction to the other girl. She couldn't exactly deny that Paige was attractive, and Spencer was right about them getting along well. If Emily had been single she would have been tempted to find out if Spencer was right about her twin being gay. As it was, she'd been dating her girlfriend, Samara, for a few months. She wasn't looking to get involved with anybody else, but that didn't mean she couldn't get to know Spencer's sister a little better.

Around the back of the gas station, Paige was on her phone to own her girlfriend. "Hey, yeah I'm fine. Sorry I didn't call earlier, things have been a bit crazy. I'm actually just outside of town, I need to pick up some stuff from the house. Does your mom still have that spare key my dad gave her? Great, I'll meet you there in twenty...yeah, me too." She wasn't quite as excited about seeing her girlfriend as she knew she should have been. Shana had been full of concern, asking how Paige and her dad were doing. Apparently the story had made the local news. As a minor, Paige's name couldn't be released, but it was a small town and gossip travelled quickly. Everybody would know by lunchtime. Paige trudged back to the car, wondering how to casually tell the others that her girlfriend would be meeting them at the house. She had no idea what Spencer and her friends were like, she couldn't exactly predict how they would react to finding out she was gay.

She decided to hold off from telling them. Instead, she climbed back in to the car and told the others that her friend was meeting them with her keys. It wasn't exactly a lie, just more of a half-truth. It didn't stand up for long though, not when they reached her house and Shana was anxiously waiting for her girlfriend. Paige got out to meet her. She'd barely taken two steps when Shana had thrown herself around her, kissing her desperately. "I don't think that's her friend." Spencer commented dryly as Emily and Toby politely averted their gazes. Spencer sounded almost smug about being proved right.

Paige felt she was being watched as she pulled back from Shana. She ducked her head, almost bashfully, as Shana cupped her cheek. "I missed you last night." The other girl sighed and leaned in for another kiss. Paige gave her a chaste peck on the lips, aware that Spencer and the others were staring at them. She wasn't big on public displays. Kissing in public had never bothered Shana though. They'd come pretty close a handful of detentions for making-out up against Paige's locker. "Who are they?" Shana noticed the others in the car, though it was mostly Spencer and Emily that held her attention.
"That's Spencer, her boyfriend Toby, and her friend Emily. Spencer's my sister. Apparently I have two." It still felt strange to talk about having sisters. Up until yesterday, Paige had been an only child.

"Your sister's cute. I could go for the twin thing." Shana smirked. Paige took no attention, she was used to her girlfriend's sense of humour. The others got out of the car, on Spencer's urging, and Paige introduced them all.
"Guys, this is Shana...my girlfriend."
"No kidding." Spencer seemed to take the news that her twin was gay pretty well. Paige was grateful in one way, but disappointed in another. Part of her had been hoping for a reason for the Hastings not to want to know her.

"Nice to meet you Shana. I'm Spencer, and this is Toby and Emily." Spencer shook hands with her sister's girlfriend. Paige waited for the introductions to be over before heading inside the house. She left Spencer and her friends in the living room while she went upstairs to pack a bag. Shana went along with her. She grilled her on her new-found family and asked what was going on with her dad. Paige tried to be patient with her questioning, but she really didn't feel up to the Spanish Inquisition from her own girlfriend. Her answers were short and snappy as she went around her room, packing what she thought she'd would need. She figured it might take a few days for the FBI to clear everything up.

Shana picked up on her mood right away. She stopped Paige in her tracks, forcing her to finally look her in the eye. "You blame me for this, don't you?" She wasn't a fool. She knew how her girlfriend thought. She'd had her suspicions the night before, when Paige wasn't answering her calls. The way she was trying to avoid her gaze, pretty much confirmed her fears. "Because I didn't do that stupid fingerprinting thing and you did...I'm sorry Paige, but I didn't abduct you and lie to you for fifteen years-" Shana was abruptly cut off as Paige slapped her. They lapsed in to silence, staring each other down as Paige's chest rose and fell with the effort of trying to control her anger. She was literally shaking with the effort.

"Get out. I want you to leave."
"You don't mean that." Shana tried to move closer to her, but Paige took a step back. She wrapped her arms around herself, starting to shut down.
"Yes I do!"
"Fine." Shana threw her hands up. She knew there was no point in arguing with her girlfriend when she was so worked up. "Call me when you've calmed down. We can talk properly." She pressed a kiss to Paige's cheek, while the other girl stood stiffly. Paige slumped down on to her bed as Shana showed herself out. Her hands covered her face, and she winced as she heard the front door slam.

"Paige? Are you okay?" She looked up from her hands and found Emily hovering by her door. "Sorry, I wasn't eavesdropping, I was just looking for the bathroom." Paige brushed the apology off, Emily probably hadn't wanted to hear the fight anymore than she had.
"It's fine. The bathroom's the next door on the right."
"Thanks." Emily looked like she wanted to say more, to check that Paige really was doing okay, but she didn't. She left the other girl to her packing.

Downstairs, Spencer and Toby were standing in the living room, waiting for Paige to finish gathering her things. They watched Shana storm out of the house without saying a word. She'd looked pretty pissed. "What do you think that was about?" Spencer quizzed, but Toby just shrugged in response. They didn't have long to dwell on what might have happened with Shana. A few minutes after she'd left, they heard a key scraping in the lock of the front door. Spencer got her first glimpse of Nick McCullers as he walked through the door, and scowled at the teenagers standing in his living room. He looked tired and run down, and there was a couple of days worth of stubble on his chin.

"Who the hell are you?"
"Paige!" Spencer called up for her sister, but the other girl was already coming down the stairs. She almost knocked her father over as she launched at him throwing her arms around his neck. Nick took a step back to steady himself, but held on tight to his daughter. The other teens looked away, feeling like they were intruding. Emily had followed Paige down the stairs. She stood at the bottom, trying to shrink back out of sight as Nick looked up and spotted her. He didn't pay her much attention though, his attention was firmly fixed on Paige.
"I'm so sorry baby. I had no idea...I'm sorry." He buried his face in to Paige's shoulder, trying to hide the tears that were streaming down his cheeks.

Emily moved from the foot of the stairs. She gave Spencer a pointed look as she headed for the door. The other girl didn't budge, but Toby got the message and tugged on her hand so she'd follow him out the door. "I don't think I should be leaving Paige alone with him!" Spencer objected, before the door had even shut behind them.
"Spencer, the man raised her for the last fifteen years. I doubt he'd do anything to hurt her." Toby pointed out, earning himself a glare.
"He wasn't meant to be here! He's still supposed to be in FBI custody! Mom will freak when she finds out about this! What are you doing?" Spencer's head snapped up as Emily took her phone out of her hands. "Spence, remember when we were younger and Melissa used to tattle on you all the time? You hated it."

"This isn't anything like that!" Spencer argued. "That man in there abducted her! He should be rotting in a jail cell somewhere!"
"Paige doesn't see it that way. She won't thank you for calling your mom." Emily stared Spencer down, still holding on to her phone. She only gave it back once the other girl reluctantly agreed not to make the call.

"They released me on bail." Nick sighed as he slumped down in to one of the recliners. Paige sat on the arm of the chair beside him. She'd usually be told off for it, but Nick wasn't paying attention. His hands were rubbing at the stubble on his face. "They're happy I was overseas when...when it happened. They've bailed me while they make their enquiries. They want to make sure I didn't know about any of it...I still can't believe it, what she did..."
"I don't care what she did. She's still my mom, no matter what anybody else says." Paige held her head high. Despite everything she was feeling, anger towards her mother wasn't included. "And you're still my dad...right?" As happy as she was to see him, Paige was worried that her father wouldn't feel the same way. He'd just found out the daughter he'd raised wasn't really his own flesh and blood. Paige had no idea what had happened to the other baby. Only her mother knew that for sure.

"Of course I am!" Nick sat up straighter in his chair, his eyes fixed on the teenager. They were wide, and red raw from crying. "I don't care what a blood test says. I'm your father. I'm the one who held your hand on the first day of school. I taught you how to ride a bike, how to swim...nothing can take that away. Nothing can make that mean any less."

"So I can come home then?" Paige asked, getting her hopes up. She watched as her father's expression tightened. She'd seen that look once before; when she'd arrived at the hospital and asked him how her mom was doing after the car accident. He'd stared at her, his eyes watering and his bottom lip quivering. His knees had buckled after that, and he'd dropped to the floor in a heap. The image of her father, beaten and broken, was still seared in to Paige's mind two years later. "Dad?" Nick dropped his gaze. He couldn't look at her.
"I don't have any parental rights. The FBI made that quite clear. I can speak to a lawyer, but those people...The Hastings are both lawyers. You'd be eighteen before we even got to court."
"They can't make me go back to that town! We could run away. My passport's upstairs. We could go to Canada or Mexico-"

"Paige. They have my passport." Nick took hold of both of her hands in his own as he brought their faces together, resting his forehead against hers. "That was one of my bail conditions. You know I'd do anything for you, but running away isn't the answer. You're in your last year of school. You've got college to think of. We can't let something like this get in the way of you getting in to Stanford."
"Maybe I'll go to UPenn instead." Paige sighed as she pulled back. Stanford had been her dream school for years, but moving across the other side of the country suddenly seemed far too far from her dad.
"You'll do no such thing." Nick tried to make his tone authoritative, but his voice started to crack. "You've got a bright future ahead of you. Don't let this mess ruin that. You have to go back with them for now, but we'll figure something out. I'm not giving you up without a fight."

Outside, Spencer and the others were sitting back in the car. "It's getting late, we should be going home. " Spencer had already dodged two calls from her mother in the time they'd been waiting in the car.
"Give them some time." Emily urged. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to find out her dad wasn't actually her dad.
"Here she comes now." Toby nodded towards the figure stepping down from the porch. Paige had her hands shoved in to the pockets of her jeans, and her head down. She was carrying two suitcases, and Nick was following after her with two more. Paige hadn't packed everything, but it had finally started to sink in that she wasn't coming home any time soon. She'd need to take what she could.

Toby jumped out to help with her bags. Taking them from her, he placed them in the trunk of the car. "My bike..." Paige suddenly remembered her pride and joy sitting in the garage. She couldn't leave it behind.
"It should fit in the back." Toby assured her, the Toyota Highlander had plenty of space in the trunk.
"I doubt it." Nick muttered as he tossed the other two cases in to the car. Paige ran off to the garage to fetch her 'bike'.
"Mom is going to flip..." Spencer's mouth hung open as Paige pushed a sleek black motorbike out on to the drive.

"Is that a Softail Night Train?" Toby marvelled over the Harley as he went over for a closer look.
"1999 model." Paige answered proudly. She and her dad had spent the previous summer doing the old bike up. Nick had an almost identical one in the garage. His father had been a grease monkey. Although Nick hadn't followed in his footsteps and became a mechanic, he still knew his way around an engine. He'd passed his knowledge on to Paige.
"You and Toby could start your own motorbike gang." Emily joked as she climbed out of the car to get a better look at the chopper.
"Want to ride back with me?" Paige offered, catching the other girl off guard."I've got a spare helmet." She was grinning at Emily like she was offering her a challenge and waiting to see how she would react.

"Em, your mom will kill you!" Spencer shouted from the driver's seat of the car. She hated Toby riding his bike around town, the thought of her sister and her best friend riding along the freeway on one had her sick to her stomach.
"Come on, Em. Take a walk on the wild side." Paige held out the spare helmet for Emily. Biting her lip, the other girl took it, accepting the challenge. Spencer rolled her eyes at the two of them, while Toby shut the trunk.
"We'll meet you back in town. Mom is going to have something to say about the bike!"
"I bet she will." Paige smirked. She was counting on it.

The others took off first, leaving Paige to say goodbye to her dad. She hugged him while Emily stood to the side, fiddling with the strap of the helmet she'd been given. "I'll call you every day." Nick promised as he held his only daughter in a crushing hug. "Be good. Stick in at school and work on your times. Remember to eat properly when you're training...I love you Paigey Penguin."
"Love you Papa Bear." Paige mumbled back, not caring that Emily could hear her. She pulled her own helmet on and pushed down the visor, so the other girl couldn't see she her starting to cry. Throwing a leg over the bike, she revved the engine as Emily climbed on behind her. She gingerly wrapped her arms around Paige's waist, but she wasn't holding on very tight. "You'll have to hold on tighter than that." She moved her hands to cover Emily's, making sure she got the point; the roar of the engine blocked out the sound of Emily swallowing hard behind her.

Paige loved the freedom of being on her chopper on the open road. It gave her the same kind of focus that swimming did. With her attention firmly on the road, her mind didn't have time to wander. Even the other swimmer pressed up against her wasn't the same kind of distraction it would have been any other time. Emily wasn't feeling quite so serene. She was clinging on to Paige for dear life. Her grip only tightened as Paige let rip, tearing up the road as quickly as the speed limit would allow. It didn't take them long to catch up to Spencer and Toby. Paige managed to keep up with the car for most of the way back. Once they hit town, she turned her head back to look at Emily over her shoulder as they stopped for a red light. "Want me to take you straight home?"
"No! My mom would ground me for life!" Emily laughed right by her ear. "Just drop me off at Spence's. I'll walk back."

They pulled up outside the Hastings' just after Spencer and Toby. Emily had to go straight home for dinner, but Toby stayed around to help with Paige's bags. Veronica was waiting for them inside the house when they all trudged in. "Toby, could you make that bike any louder?" She began, and it was clearly a conversation she and Spencer's boyfriend had shared before.
"Actually, it was mine." Paige cut the older woman off before she could start lecturing Toby.
"Yours? You have a motorcycle?" Veronica looked at her like Paige had just told her she had a pet Viper. "Well, we'll have to talk about that." Her lips formed a tight, thin line as she fought back a frown.

"Here's the deal." Paige put down her case, staring her birth mother right in the eyes. "I'm stuck here until I'm eighteen. I get that now; but I can be a real pain in the ass if I want to be. You want me to tow the line and play happy families? Then I get to keep my bike." Paige didn't wait for an answer. Picking her bags back up, she went straight upstairs to her room. Toby followed after her with the other two bags, barely biting back a smile. Spencer was smirking as she watched her twin go. The expression on her mother's face was priceless. "Well, you wanted her to be a Hastings; it looks like she's living up to expectations."

A/N: Thanks for reading and for the awesome feedback people have been leaving. I've been off work for the last month, but I'm going back this week, so updates might not be as frequent. I'll try and make the chapters longer to make up for it.