The sound of the slamming door echos through the house as Johnny gives up on his hopeless roommates and admits defeat for the night.
Alone in her room, Paige thinks about Johnny's words and how the whole house is falling apart. Decisively, she folds up the drawing Mike had given her and places it in the nightstand next to her bed. Peaking out into the hall, she sees that each roommate has their door shut. The house seems eerily quiet with everyone separated into their own worlds, trapped alone with their own troubles.
Paige walks swiftly down the empty hall from her room to Mike's door. She cracks the door open and slips inside, turning to silently close the door behind her. Even with her stealthy entrance, Mike hears her and comes out of his bathroom on high alert, ready to face the intruder. The room is dark. The only light coming from the bathroom glowing behind Mike, but he can still recognize her from just the outline of her shadow and the scent of her perfume.
Paige stares at him illuminated from behind, his pale skin making him look like a ghost. It's a miracle he's still in this world. For a moment they just stand across the room, staring at each other. Mike is surprised to see her here, and he can't read her face in the dark. His body tenses up, preparing for yet another fight.
Her eyes are wet with unshed tears, and he barely hears the nearly inaudible whisper of "I'm sorry," before she closes the distance between them, and throws her arms around his neck, pulling him close into a hug.
Mike doesn't even mind the pain that shoots through him with the force of her small frame slamming into his. His arms wrap tightly around her waist and he buries his head in her hair. He's thankful that for the first time since he arrived at Graceland he doesn't feel completely alone.
He holds her close as she cries softly into his shoulder.
"Shhh… it's ok. I'm sorry too." He brings one hand up to stroke her hair in a soothing motion. His side is in agony from the pressure of her pressed against him, but he ignores the pain and silently hopes he doesn't get blood on her delicate white and gray striped shirt.
"You almost died." She pulls away slightly from him, not ready to let him go yet. She was so ashamed for how she reacted in the hospital. "When I got the call saying you'd been stabbed, I thought I'd lost you."
"I thought I'd lost you. I was worried you would never speak to me again… Paige, I hated lying to you. I'm so sorry. You were right. Everything you said, was right… I'm a rat. I don't know how to fix this." Now that they've both apologized, it seems like they're now competing in who was more wrong. Paige and Mike were ever like two sides of the same coin.
"But I shouldn't have left you there like that. I should have stayed with you. Mike, what if you had died and those were the last-"
"Hey, I'm fine. Ok? I'm not going anywhere. See?" He grabs one of her hands from around his neck bringing it down to his chest where he presses it firmly so she can feel his heartbeat. The move was supposed to be comforting, but instead it just seems to draw attention to the fact that he's shirtless and they're touching. His heart starts to pound harder under her fingertips.
His lips are suddenly dry, and he swallows nervously, aware that very suddenly he has broken the spell. He's not sure how to get out of this awkward moment though, and the time drags on like it's frozen. Her fingertips curl against his chest, and her eyes lower to stare at the smooth expanse of skin in front of her.
"Do you wax? That is unnaturally smooth." She laughs, trying to break the tension with a joke and pulls away her hand to wipe away the few tears that escaped.
Paige is not normally a cryer, but the past few days have been an emotional rollercoaster for her. First there was Bobby Moi, her fighting with Mike, then Mike getting stabbed, finding out he was a rat, him almost dying again in jail, then all the new information about Briggs. . . It was too much for Paige to handle and the dam just had to break sometime.
Mike recognizes her trying to break the tension with her jokes, but he's looking down at her intensely. He hates to see her cry, even briefly, but the tears make her green eyes sparkle even brighter. He wants to tell her how much her being here means to him, but he can't find the words. The only thing Mike can think is that kissing her right now would sum up how he's feeling perfectly.
"Honestly, where do you find time to do such immaculate manscaping?" Paige is still nervously joking, and he loses his nerve. She's barely speaking to him again. He doesn't want to screw up this fragile moment of peace between them. Regardless of her humor, They are both quickly realizing that Mike is shirtless, his arms are still around her waist, and his bed is about two feet away.
"I should put on a shirt…" Mike pulls awkwardly away from her. The wound on his side makes clothing uncomfortable, but he cares more about her comfort than his own, at the moment.
"So, what are you going to do? About Briggs?" She asks, wrapping her arms protectively around her stomach now that he's pulled away.
"Whatever I have to." Mike says grimly, "Look I don't think Briggs did all those things, but I have to do my job."
"Are you going to tell the FBI I know?"
"I'm not planning on it. " Mike locates a soft t-shirt in his dresser. It's old and ratty, but it's probably going to irritate his injury the least.
"So do I know everything then?" She asks, and the tone in her voice makes Mike suspicious.
"More than anyone else." Mike says guardedly, carefully sliding his arms into the shirt and sliding it on. Paige watches his reverse strip show with unblinking eyes, smiling warmly at him.
"Can I finally find out what was really going on that day you cut yourself?" She asks when his head emerges through the collar.
"I'll tell you anything you want to know. How much time do you have?" Mike asks, remembering when Paige had confronted him, and how he'd had no choice but to remain silent. He'd wanted to tell her then, and now he finally could. He's filled with a sudden lightness, not having to worry about secrets for once was very freeing.
"I'm not going anywhere." Paige said, walking over and sitting cross- legged on Mike's bed as instructing him, "Start from the beginning."
"The beginning. Wow. It feels so long ago. Well I guess, I was at home, I was actually researching apartments in DC, when I got the call, that I'd been assigned to California." Mike sits down on the bed across from her, finding himself actually excited to finally share all he'd been going through these last few months.
"Did you know your assignment was to investigate Briggs?"
"No. I had no idea what was going on, I thought maybe I had screwed up and was being punished."
"You're right, Graceland is like Guantanamo. All this sand and sunshine."
"I like it here more than I thought I would." Mike admits, hoping he didn't offend her. "You want to hear the story or not?"
"Yes please." She stops with her teasing to listen like a small child.
"So I got here, having no idea what I was getting into. Briggs wasn't at all what I suspected and I felt so lost. I was just getting settled when I found out."
"Did you know? When I first met you, did you know then?"
"Yes." Mike won't lie to her again. "The morning of the day I met you, I met with my 'psychiatrist.' He was my commanding officer in the Briggs investigation."
"Well, I guess in a way it is comforting to know. I mean, your interest in Briggs was a little intense. Bordering on obsession really. Johnny and I were wagering which side you played for."
"Wait, was that why you set me up with Abby?! To see if I was straight?!"
"Oh what are you so pouty about, you got laid. I got fifty bucks. Win-win." Paige rolls her eyes.
"So why didn't you just try to seduce me yourself?" Mike tries to act casual about the question, but it's something he's wondered ever since Paige threw him at night at the bar, Mike was clearly trying to hit on Paige, and she had shut him down.
"Well that would have meant for the sake of fairness that Johnny would have to have tried too."
"Oh he did." Mike joked, making Paige laugh out loud. "Consistently. It was horrifying."
"That cheater!" Paige giggles, "So not fair."
Mike gives her a little shrug, and a smirk and says, "Hey, you could have tried that strategy too…"
"Wouldn't have worked." Paige says. Mike stares at her, biting his cheek to keep from telling her that if she had shown any type of interest, it would have worked. She smiles at him and says confidently, "Gay guy's love me."
"I'm sure they do…" Mike says with a little smile as Paige launches back into drilling him about the Briggs investigation.