A/N: Trigger warning for brief talk of Paige's past. Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!

Paige's parents arrived at the beach house a little after nine. Spencer let them in and sent them upstairs to where Emily was lying next to Paige on the bed, rubbing her back. She got up when her parents came in, standing off to the side as they moved to the bed, fussing over their daughter. She found it hard to control her emotions as she watched them, grateful that they had been able to come. At least it would be a source of comfort, no matter how small.

"Oh, Paige," Elizabeth whispered, taking her daughter in her arms. Paige buried her face in her mother's shoulder, unable to hold her tears in anymore. She started to cry, as she had done on and off the past two days, clutching onto her mother as she had done when she was a little girl. She felt her father's hand on her back, silently telling her he was there, and it did nothing to stop her tears. She cried and cried as Emily looked at the scene before her with teary eyes. "Baby, it's okay. We're here and we're not going to let anything happen to you."

Paige didn't answer. She couldn't answer.

"We'll take care of this," Nick added. "Don't worry."

"I'm so sorry," her mother whispered. Paige took a shuddering breath, wiping her eyes.

"You… you know I d-didn't do it, right?"

"Of course we do," Elizabeth replied, holding her tight. "You're our daughter. We know you would never hurt anyone."

"How many times have you talked to the police?" Nick asked.

"One. And before I got there they already had their minds made up that I did it."

"They accused you?"

"In so many words. Because I had a past relationship with her I guess that automatically means I wanted her dead. They're not even looking into it."

"I'm going to pay them a visit tomorrow," he replied. "And remind them they need evidence before they can accuse someone of murder."

"I'm scared," she admitted, leaning against her mother. Her father smiled sadly at her.

"I know."

"Your father and I were thinking that if we can get permission for you to leave, you should come back to Maine with us for a couple days," her mother suggested, brushing loose hair out of her daughter's face.

"Wouldn't it look bad leaving?"

"No. You don't live here. If they say you can go, why would you stay?" Nick replied. She shrugged. She guessed that made sense.

"Can Emily come, too?"

"Of course," Elizabeth replied, smiling over at Emily. "It's going to be okay, sweetheart. I promise."

Miraculously, Paige fell asleep. She had been up nearly the whole past forty-eight hours, and Emily was relieved to see her finally get some rest. Nick left them to call his office about how to go about tomorrow, while Emily and Elizabeth stayed by Paige's side.

"Thank you," Elizabeth whispered to her. Emily looked at her, confused.

"For what?"

"Staying by her side. You….. you have been so good to her."

"I love her. And I know her," Emily replied simply. "I never doubted her for a second."

"I know. I'm so grateful she found someone like you." She looked at her sleeping daughter, taking a deep breath. "I'm afraid that if things get worse she might try to hurt herself again."

"I don't think she will," Emily replied confidently. "She's really strong. And she knows that she has us standing with her."

Elizabeth nodded, tears glistening in her eyes. Emily smiled reassuringly at her.

"She'll be okay, Liz," she told her gently. "I know it."

"Do you…. do you know everything that happened between her and Shana?"

"Yeah. She told me. And I still don't think that's a good enough reason to accuse someone of murder without evidence. I mean, she just cares so much about everyone. Anyone who knows her knows that."

"She does," Elizabeth agreed, looking at her sleeping daughter. "Almost to a fault."

"She told me about Clara, too," Emily added. A tear slid down Elizabeth's cheek.

"That girl….. Paige followed her around like a lost puppy. I wondered if she was gay, between that and the fact that she never talked about boys. Nick denied it, but I knew. I really thought her friend cared about her, too. Maybe not in the way she wanted, but at least as a friend. I was so wrong."

"Was Nick opposed to the idea?" she asked. Paige had told her that her parents had been very accepting, maybe out of fear that she would try to hurt herself again, but she had never mentioned how they had thought about homosexuality before.

"Not exactly. I mean, he wasn't…. excited when I brought it up, but he didn't get angry either. He was raised very Catholic, but he knew even then that if I was right, she's our daughter and that's what matters." She took a deep breath, wiping at the tear on her cheek. "Clara came to us and played the recording of Paige confessing her feelings, all smug and proud of herself. I have never seen my husband so angry as he was on that day."

"At Paige?"

"No. At Clara. I was so proud of him, the way he told her off. But then we found Paige…" She trailed off, swallowing hard. Emily placed her hand on her arm. "She's had so many tough breaks. But she always seems to make it through."

"You should be very proud of her," Emily agreed. "I know I am."

"I am, too. And I'm grateful she has you."

At that moment, Paige began to stir next to them. She opened her eyes, squinting as she tried to get used to the light.

"Emily?"

"I'm right here, love," she soothed softly, reaching out to gently stroke her head. "Go back to sleep."

Paige nodded, letting Emily help her under the covers as her mother got up to turn the light off. She felt Emily's arm around her as she drifted back off to sleep, her worries for the moment forgotten.

The next morning, she was called back to the police station. Emily went with her, reminding her that if they tried to rope her into a confession she would have to refuse to answer until she had a lawyer. Nick was planning on talking to them after, mostly depending on how they handled their questioning.

"You have the right to refuse," Emily told her as they sat out in the waiting room. Paige was anxiously chewing on her lip, her stomach in knots. She knew she didn't do anything wrong, but they sure didn't seem to. She knew how this worked from growing up with her father in the business; if the police thought you were guilty of something, it wasn't easy to change their minds. She was sure they were calling her back to interrogate her and accuse her some more, not tell her they believed her.

"Paige McCullers?" Lieutenant Tanner called as she opened the door, a nasty sneer on her face. Paige reluctantly stood up and followed her into her office, her stomach churning uncomfortably as Tanner closed the door behind her.

"Here to accuse me some more?" she asked bitterly.

"Of course not. I just want to ask you some questions."

"Sure."

Tanner glared at her, taking a pen from the holder on her desk. Paige took a deep breath, fighting to keep her anger in check.

"I want you to tell me again about your meeting Shana on the beach."

"I told you everything I know."

"Miss McCullers, are you going to do this the easy way or the hard way? I don't really like your attitude."

"I didn't meet her. She followed me."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I wanted nothing to do with her. I hadn't spoken to her in over a year. And then suddenly she was popping up everywhere."

"That must have made you pretty angry."

"No. I wasn't angry. I just didn't want to see her."

"That isn't what our witnesses on the beach said."

"I got tired of her harassing me, so I told her to leave me alone. That was all. I didn't threaten her. If anything, she threatened me."

"Really?" Tanner asked, raising her eyebrows. "How so?"

"She said something along the lines of she would leave me alone but I was going to be sorry."

"Did anyone else hear this?"

"I would image all the creeps staring at us heard it. But they conveniently left it out because they want their time to shine in a murder investigation. It doesn't make their statement sound very important if she was the one making threats."

"Well, maybe that made you angry."

"Jesus Christ!" she exclaimed, the sudden urge to flip Tanner's desk over almost overwhelming. "I was going to let it go when agreed to leave! Why don't you understand that? I didn't care about talking things over when she came back. Things ended for me the second she told me she cheated. I had no desire to ever speak to her again!"

"Miss McCullers, it certainly sounds as if you hold a lot of resentment."

"Of course I do! Anyone who went through what I went through would. Have you never been screwed over by someone you thought cared about you?"

"We're not talking about me. We're talking about you."

"I would never, ever hurt her. But I'm guessing I could say that until I was blue in the face and you would never believe me."

"You have to understand that you have a motive. As of now, unless there is someone you would like to suggest, we know of no other people who would have wanted to murder her in such a brutal way."

"I would never hurt her," she replied stubbornly.

"Not even a small part of you wanted her back, and when you saw her all that betrayal just came back to you?"

"No. I am very, very happy with the girlfriend I have now. Shana was nothing but the past."

Referring to her in the past tense still felt strange. Tears pricked her eyes and she looked down, not wanting Tanner to see. She didn't think she believed her, and there was really nothing she could do.

"Maybe you didn't intend to kill her. Maybe you saw her and you snapped."

"I didn't…" She trailed off. That sounded like an actual accusation. "If you're going to keep talking to me like that, I'm going to have to call a lawyer."

"I think that would be a good idea," Tanner replied. Paige's stomach dropped. "But before you go I would like to show you something."

She pulled a folder from the shelf by her desk and opened it, revealing gruesome pictures of Shana's body. Paige gasped, closing her eyes as her stomach flipped. She had seen Shana's face, the rest of her covered by a sheet when she had helped the police identify her. She hadn't expected her to be so mutilated.

"Is there anything you want to say?" she asked, smirking at Paige's discomfort. She shook her head, refusing to look.

"I need a lawyer."

"If you won't look, I'll describe what she looks like to you. Or do you already know since you're the one who did this to her?"

"Stop!"

"You cut her open, from her throat to her stomach. You must have watched her bleed out. Did she beg? Did she plead with you not to do it?"

"Please, stop…"

"This was such a brutal way for her to die. With such pain, such suffering. Did you think she deserved to die?"

"No!" she sobbed, unable to stop the tears any longer.

"Did you kill her?" Tanner shouted at her. The door flew open, a young male standing there.

"Lieutenant, there's someone…. what's going on?" he asked, noting the pictures of the victim on the table and Paige sobbing in her chair. "Are you questioning her without a lawyer present?"

"I'm doing my job, Holbrook. Get out of here."

"I came to tell you that Lieutenant McCullers from Caribou is here. The father of the girl you're interrogating," he added, gesturing to Paige. "I'm sure he will be thrilled to hear that you did not allow his daughter to call a lawyer before questioning her."

Tanner's mouth dropped open. Holbrook gave her a cold look before turning his attention to Paige.

"Miss McCullers, you can leave now. Call a lawyer."

Paige nodded, wasting no time in hurrying out of the room. She walked right past Emily, who stood up to meet her, and straight to the bathroom with her hand over her mouth. Emily followed her, unsurprised to find her kneeling in front of a toilet, vomiting. She crouched down next to her, holding her hair as she rubbed circles on her back. When she finished she sat back crying, burying her face in her hands. Emily held her tight, wanting to cry with her. She hated seeing her suffer so much.

"It's okay, sweetheart," she whispered, trying to soothe her. "It's okay."

"She showed me pictures…. pictures of Shana," she sniffed. "She kept asking me if I wanted her to die, if I made her look like that…."

"Without letting you call a lawyer?"

Paige nodded. Emily pursed her lips, anger washing over her.

"Your dad is going to fix that."

"He can't change that they think I'm a murderer."

"Oh, Paige….. we'll get through this."

"I don't know if we can. I don't know if I can."

"Hey. Don't say that," she replied, burying her face in Paige's shoulder. "We'll get through this together. We'll find who really did it."

"How? I'm they're only suspect. And if it was someone random, that's not going to help any more."

"They'll find the real killer," Emily insisted, sounding more confident than she felt. "They always do."

"Not always," Paige replied glumly. Emily sighed, flushing the toilet and helping her to her feet.

"Let's get out of here."

They went back out to the lobby, where Nick was leaving Tanner's office, a smug look on his face. He made his way over to his daughter, pulling her in for a hug.

"You can come back with us for a couple days," he told her. "They have no physical evidence against you and they can't hold you hostage here without it. We'll get you a lawyer and get this all sorted out."

"I'm scared," she replied, leaning her head against him.

"I know you are. But I promise, I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Do you trust me?" She nodded. He smiled at her. "Good. Let's go get some of your things packed."

They left the police station and went back to the beach house, packing their bags up before leaving with Paige's parents for Maine. Exhausted, Paige fell asleep on the way home, as Emily stared out the window, afraid this was far from over.